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Vladislav Namestnikov

Jets Notes: Namestnikov, Dillon, Barron

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Winnipeg Jets Color Analyst Mitchell Clinton tweeted that Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov has a fractured left cheekbone and will travel back to Winnipeg today. Clinton’s comments come from a conversation with Jets head coach Rick Bowness who wouldn’t rule Namestnikov out for game 5 tomorrow night.

Namestnikov was sent to hospital last night after he took a slapshot from Nate Schmidt to the side of the head near the end of Winnipeg’s 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. The 31-year-old stayed on the ice for a minute before putting a towel on his head and skating off the ice with the trainer’s assistance. Namestnikov then went straight to the dressing room and eventually the hospital.

Winnipeg faces elimination tomorrow night and will likely provide an update on Namestnikov’s availability at some point tomorrow.

In other Winnipeg Jets notes:

  • Winnipeg defenseman Brenden Dillon will not play in game 5 because of the cut on his left hand (via TSN’s John Lu). Dillon cut his hand in game 3 after the final whistle when he was involved in a scrum with some Avalanche players. One of the other player’s skates hit Dillon’s hand and cut it, forcing him to quickly leave the ice to seek medical attention for his hand. The 33-year-old will likely remain day-to-day and will be re-evaluated should the Jets force a game 6 later this week.
  • Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Free Press reports that Jets’ forward Morgan Barron won’t be available for tomorrow night’s game 5. Barron continues to be out of the lineup with a lower-body injury and has not skated yet. The 25-year-old center will miss his sixth straight game after being hurt in a game against the Seattle Kraken on April 16th. Barron posted 11 goals and seven assists this season in 80 games and provided the Jets bottom six with a physicality that has been missing through their first-round series against the Avalanche.

West Notes: DeSmith, Namestnikov, Kiviranta, Hague

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Casey DeSmith isn’t on the game roster for Canucks in today’s Game 4 against the Predators, forcing Vancouver to turn to third-string Arturs Silovs for his first playoff start with Thatcher Demko already hurt. It doesn’t appear the Canucks expect DeSmith out for long, however, as he was only termed day-to-day with a lower-body injury. There was further evidence to the fact shortly after the game started, as The Athletic’s Thomas Drance reports DeSmith was still the Canucks’ designated emergency backup for today’s game.

The 32-year-old would only be eligible to play if Silovs and backup Nikita Tolopilo suffered in-game injuries. Otherwise, holding DeSmith out of game action points to his absence as being more precautionary than anything else, hoping to avoid aggravating whatever he’s dealing with. Assumedly, he’ll be back in action for elimination games later in the series after putting up a .911 SV% in two postseason games thus far.

Elsewhere in the Western Conference:

  • Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov left today’s Game 4 loss to the Avalanche after a Nate Schmidt slapshot hit him in the side of the head in the middle of the third period. He remained on the ice for nearly a minute and was able to skate off with the assistance of trainers, not requiring a stretcher. He’s still been transported to a Denver hospital for evaluation, reports Guerilla Sports’ Jesse Montano. Winnipeg head coach Rick Bowness had no update on Namestnikov’s health postgame other than confirming he was taken to a hospital. The 31-year-old had a goal and a -2 rating in the first three games of the series, which the Jets now trail 3-1.
  • The Avalanche were without winger Joel Kiviranta in today’s win, paving the way for 24-year-old Nikolai Kovalenko to make his NHL debut after being recalled from the AHL less than an hour prior to puck drop. Speaking with reporters postgame, Avs head coach Jared Bednar confirmed Kiviranta’s absence was injury-related, calling him day-to-day with a lower-body issue (via NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding). The 28-year-old had worked his way into a third-line role, a domino effect due to Jonathan Drouin being out for the series. He started the season on a PTO and subsequent AHL contract but inked a major-league deal with Colorado in November. He has one assist and a +2 rating in three games against the Jets this postseason.
  • The Golden Knights expect to be without defenseman Nicolas Hague again in tomorrow’s Game 4 against the Stars, head coach Bruce Cassidy said (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Danny Webster). He sustained a lower-body injury in the third period of Vegas’ Game 1 win and has yet to return to practice. The 25-year-old’s third-pairing duties have been assumed by veteran Alec Martinez, who began the postseason on the outside looking in after the Golden Knights’ trade deadline acquisition of Noah Hanifin pushed him down the depth chart. Hague made 73 appearances in the regular season, accumulating two goals and 12 points.

West Notes: Lizotte, Lindholm, Namestnikov

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Los Angeles Kings writer Zach Dooley reported today that Kings forward Blake Lizotte has progressed to a regular practice jersey today as he moves closer to the returning to the lineup. The 25-year-old missed his sixth straight game this evening but could return on Thursday night when the Kings take on the Montreal Canadiens. Kings head coach Todd McLellan told reporters today that the plan is to see how Lizotte feels after practice tomorrow before making any decisions on a potential return later this week.

Lizotte has been sidelined with an undisclosed injury he suffered in a game against the St. Louis Blues back on November 18th. He took a hard open-ice hit from Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo and immediately went to the bench and up the tunnel with the training staff. He did not return to the game.

In 16 games this season, the Lindstrom, Minnesota native has four goals and three assists and is +7.

In other West notes:

  • TSN’s Salim Nadim Valji is reporting that Calgary Flames center Elias Lindholm was back at practice today after missing yesterday’s practice due to an illness. All signs point to the 29-year-old dressing in the Flames game tonight against the Minnesota Wild as Calgary tries to get back to .500 after starting the season 2-7-1. Lindholm has played fine this season with seven goals and 10 assists in 24 games, but he has struggled to score goals with a shooting percentage of just 10.9%, well off his career average of 12.5%.
  • Winnipeg Jets analyst Mitchell Clinton is reporting that Winnipeg Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov will join the team on their upcoming road trip but is unlikely to play in Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. The 31-year-old has missed the Jets’ last two games after suffering a lower-body injury during a puck battle with Darnell Nurse in the Jets’ 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers last Thursday. Namestnikov signed a two-year deal with the Jets in the summer and has had a decent start to the season with two goals and nine assists in his first 22 games.

Winnipeg Jets Sign Laurent Brossoit, Vladislav Namestnikov, Jeffrey Viel

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The Winnipeg Jets have brought back two familiar faces. They’ve signed goaltender Laurent Brossoit back from the Vegas Golden Knights on a one-year $1.75MM deal, per TSN’s Chris Johnston. They’ve also signed forward Vladislav Namestnikov to a two-year, $2MM AAV deal per TSN’s Darren Dreger.  Dreger reports they’ve also added former San Jose Sharks forward Jeffrey Viel to a one-year, one-way $775k deal.

Brossoit returns to Winnipeg after a two-year stint with Vegas.  He originally signed with the Golden Knights to be their backup goalie and while he held that role in 2021-22, that wasn’t the case in 2022-23.  He underwent hip surgery last summer which kept him out of the lineup at the start of the year.  Upon returning, Brossoit cleared waivers and was assigned to AHL Henderson.  He played in 23 games with the Silver Knights, compiling a 2.72 GAA with a .909 SV% before being recalled in February when injuries struck.

Brossoit himself couldn’t avoid the injury bug the rest of the way as he spent a month on IR soon after but he still made ten starts for Vegas, posting a 2.17 GAA with a .927 SV%; the Golden Knights picked up at least a point in each of those starts.  That, coupled with injuries to Adin Hill and Logan Thompson, resulted in Brossoit being the starter for Vegas in their first-round victory over the Jets.  Unfortunately, Brossoit was injured partway through the second round against Edmonton, paving the way for Hill to run with the starting job from there.  Nevertheless, Brossoit did well enough to earn himself a second chance with the Jets.

As for Namestnikov, he was brought in from San Jose at the trade deadline, a day after the Sharks picked him up from Tampa Bay.  The 30-year-old provided Winnipeg with some much-needed secondary scoring down the stretch, picking up 10 points in 20 games with his new team while seeing his playing time jump up by more than three minutes a night to just under 15 minutes per game.

To say that Namestnikov has bounced around in recent years would be putting it lightly.  Since the 2019-20 season, the veteran has played for seven different teams (which doesn’t include his brief stint as a Shark).  It’s likely that putting a second year on the table helped to secure the commitment from Namestnikov who now has a chance to get a bit of stability while remaining an important part of Winnipeg’s secondary offensive group.

Viel, meanwhile, comes to Winnipeg after a five-year stint in San Jose.  The 26-year-old spent most of last season with the AHL Barracuda, picking up 15 goals and 16 assists along with 150 penalty minutes, good for third in the AHL in that department.  Viel is best known for being a physical presence on the fourth line in his previous NHL duty, collecting 112 hits and 139 penalty minutes (to go along with five points) in 49 career appearances with the Sharks.  As things stand, he’s a candidate to break camp with the Jets on either the fourth line or in a reserve role.

Central Notes: Fleury, Girard, Namestnikov

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After serving as the backup for most of the playoffs, Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury indicated to reporters including Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link) after Friday’s series-ending loss to Dallas that he intends to fulfill the final year of his contract and not retire this summer.  Russo notes (subscription link) that the veteran had indicated that he’d be open to hanging up his skates if he showed this season that he couldn’t play up to his standards.  While Fleury didn’t have his best campaign, he still posted an above-average .908 SV% along with a 2.85 GAA in 46 games, clearly showing he can still compete at the top level.  He’ll enter next season seven wins away from tying Patrick Roy for the second-most regular season victories in NHL history.

More from the Central:

  • While Colorado is still alive in their first-round series, some are already looking ahead to what their offseason might look like. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli is one of those, suggesting that defenseman Samuel Girard could be the odd one out on the back end for the Avalanche with the team needing to fill as many as nine roster spots with not a ton of cap space to work with.  The 24-year-old should be highly sought after if that happens as he’ll have four years left on his deal after this one at a $5MM AAV which is good value for someone consistently logging more than 21 minutes a night on the back end while chipping in offensively; he had a career-high 37 points this season.
  • Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov has certainly bounced around lately, playing for seven different teams since 2019. With that in mind, Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe wonders if Winnipeg offering the 30-year-old a multi-year extension would be enough to get the pending UFA to become a longer-term piece for the team instead of just being another rental.  Namestnikov had 10 points in 20 games during the regular season after being acquired at the trade deadline while chipping in with a pair of assists in their five-game loss to Vegas.

Winnipeg Jets Expected To Acquire Vladislav Namestnikov

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Vladislav Namestnikov’s stay in the Bay Area has ended after just over a day. The San Jose Sharks have traded Namestnikov to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a 2025 fourth-round pick. TSN’s Darren Dreger notes that this trade takes the Jets out of contention to acquire veteran winger James Van Riemsdyk from the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are already retaining 50% of Namestnikov’s $2.5MM cap hit, meaning he ends up in Winnipeg at a relatively affordable price. The 30-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. The Sharks aren’t retaining any salary on Namestnikov themselves to complete this deal.

The Jets have been on the hunt for a player to reinforce their forward corps, and in acquiring Namestnikov they get a capable, experienced name to work with. Injuries have absolutely ravaged their ranks up front, so this addition comes at an especially important time. He’ll be able to step into their lineup and immediately upgrade their bottom six.

Is Namestnikov going to meaningfully impact the Jets’ odds of winning a Stanley Cup this season? No, probably not. But he’s a veteran of over 600 NHL games with some playoff experience as well.

He fared decently well as a rental addition last year, scoring five points in 15 games for the Dallas Stars, and finishing his season with 16 goals and 30 points.

This year, his production is down, and he has only six goals and 15 points in 57 games, but with a more regular bottom-six role in Winnipeg, he could see his numbers tick up.

At the very least, he’ll be able to capably handle 12 to 15 minutes per night for coach Rick Bowness and could even see some penalty-killing time if necessary, as he did when he was a member of the Detroit Red Wings last season. For the price of a fourth-rounder in 2025 and as a no-strings-attached rental, adding Namestnikov should definitely help.

For the Sharks, this deal has essentially allowed them to turn a waiver claim into a mid-round draft choice. While not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the Sharks know they won’t be competing for a Stanley Cup any time soon.

Getting a solid draft pick in exchange for a player the team had no long-term plans for is a sound bit of business for GM Mike Grier, and this is as a whole a trade that should leave fans of both teams satisfied.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first on the trade, while The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun was first to report the compensation heading back to San Jose. 

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

San Jose Sharks Acquire Vladislav Namestnikov

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The Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks have completed a trade, sending veteran forward Vladislav Namestnikov to the Bay Area in exchange for Mikey Eyssimont. As part of the deal, Tampa Bay will retain 50% of Namestnikov’s $2.5MM cap hit.

Namestnikov, 30, is a pending unrestricted free agent, while Eyssimont, 26, will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent in the summer should the Lightning choose to extend him a qualifying offer. Eyssimont spent right around two months in San Jose, arriving there via a waiver claim from the Winnipeg Jets.

This is a deal that’s not the easiest to rationalize from the Sharks’ point of view. Eyssimont was responding well to a bump up in ice time since his arrival from Winnipeg and had scored eight points in 20 games for the Sharks. Coach David Quinn gave him an opportunity next to Logan Couture, and Eyssimont played pretty well, averaging nearly 15 minutes of ice time with some power play time to boot.

He’s an energetic, speedy forward who might not have an easy time cracking the Lightning’s lineup, but should be capable depth for their bottom six should a winger get injured. The Lightning cleared some cap space through this deal by sending away Namestnikov, who has been a healthy scratch, so that’s also a factor working in Tampa Bay’s favor with this deal.

For the Sharks, this trade exchanges a young player with a little bit of team control remaining for an older, more seasoned veteran. Namestnikov has scored 15 points in 57 games this season and impressed last year as a deadline acquisition of the Dallas Stars. What makes this trade odd, then, is the fact that the Sharks are making a short-term upgrade despite sitting 29th in league standings.

Perhaps Sharks general manager Mike Grier has identified Namestnikov as a player he’d like to keep beyond this season via a contract extension, or maybe Quinn, who coached Namestnikov in New York, wants to see what he can get out of the 610-game veteran. Maybe San Jose plans to offer to retain salary on Namestnikov and shop him to teams interested in acquiring some experienced depth at a cheap price. In any case, it’s not a deal that is likely to be hugely consequential unless the salary cap savings pave the way for a bigger deal to take place.

The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman was first to report this swap. 

Vladislav Namestnikov Returns To Tampa Bay Lightning

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Per his agent, Dan Milstein, former Tampa Bay Lightning draftee Vladislav Namestnikov is returning to his first team on a one-year deal. The deal is worth $2.5MM, per the official team announcement.

Namestnikov was a first-round pick of the Lightning at the 2011 draft. Namestnikov last played in Tampa Bay in the 2017-18 season before being sent to the New York Rangers in the Ryan McDonagh blockbuster trade. Since that trade, Namestnikov has been a bit of a journeyman, with stints in Ottawa, Colorado, Detroit, and Dallas.

This past season, Namestnikov was a decent bottom-sixer for the Detroit Red Wings before being sent to the Dallas Stars in exchange for a third-rounder at the deadline. Combining his time with both teams, Namestnikov finished 2021-22 with 30 points in 80 games. That’s about what can be expected from Namestnikov, who has experience as both a center and a winger.

The Lightning are familiar with him and are trying to re-capture the Stanley Cup after losing to the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final. Adding Namestnikov to their bottom-six gives coach Jon Cooper a reliable, versatile option to deploy in all situations and one that should help cover for the departure of Ondrej Palat.

Dallas Stars Acquire Vladislav Namestnikov

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The Dallas Stars acquired forward Vladislav Namestnikov from the Detroit Red Wings today in exchange for a fourth-round pick, per ESPN’s Kevin Weekes.

In terms of underrated additions, Namestnikov joining the Stars might rank among the best of the day. The veteran forward appears to be a perfect fit for the Dallas roster, adding some good defensive impact along with a bit of offensive production. In 60 games this season he’s scored 13 goals and 25 points, a total that would actually put him seventh among forwards for the Stars, right about where he’ll likely fit into the lineup. More effective than say, Alexander Radulov, who has been a frustratingly inconsistent part of the Dallas roster all season, Namestnikov also has the ability to play both center and wing, meaning he could end up moving around quite a bit.

The fact that he cost just a fourth-round pick makes it a low-risk move for the Stars, who are focused on making the playoffs. The team decided not to move some of their own high profile players–including John Klingberg–bringing in Nametnikov and depth goaltender Scott Wedgewood in separate deals instead. While that may not move the needle very much, it also doesn’t sacrifice a huge number of future assets in a year where even qualifying for the postseason is no sure thing.

On Detroit’s end, getting a draft pick out of Namestnikov is likely exactly the outcome that was discussed when they signed him to a two-year, $4MM deal in October 2020. Now 29, there was always little chance that the veteran forward would be around when the Red Wings were really competitive, and this move just adds another pick to the pile.

This Day In Transactions History: Lightning Acquire Ryan McDonagh And J.T. Miller

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Four years ago today was the 2018 NHL trade deadline, one that featured several notable swaps, including Evander Kane to the Sharks, Tomas Tatar to the Golden Knights, and Paul Stastny to the Jets.  But the biggest one of all came from the Lightning and Rangers.  New York had released their letter committing to rebuilding their franchise earlier in the month and had already made some moves to shore up their future.  This was their biggest one with Tampa Bay moving out several future assets in an effort to win now.

The Lightning picked up defenseman Ryan McDonagh along with winger J.T. Miller in exchange for winger Vladislav Namestnikov, center Brett Howden, defenseman Libor Hajek, plus a first-round pick in 2018 and a second-rounder in 2019.  It has only been four years but it’s safe to say it worked out a whole lot better for Tampa Bay than it did for New York.

McDonagh immediately became a stabilizing force on the back end for the Lightning.  They didn’t need him to play upwards of 24 minutes a night as he was with the Rangers but gave them someone beyond Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman that was capable of shouldering a key load on the back end.  Then-GM Steve Yzerman wasted little time working on an extension with McDonagh and as soon as he became eligible to sign one in July, McDonagh inked a seven-year, $47.25MM deal to ensure he’ll be sticking around for the long haul.

Miller didn’t exactly have the same fate.  He was quite productive down the stretch for Tampa Bay, averaging nearly a point per game after the trade but struggled in the playoffs and didn’t produce as much the following year.  That resulted in him being traded to Vancouver for a pair of draft picks, including the 2020 first-round selection that they ultimately flipped to New Jersey in 2020 as part of the Blake Coleman trade.  Coleman, of course, played an important role on Tampa Bay’s Cup-winning teams in 2020 and 2021 so even though Miller didn’t have the type of impact they were hoping for, they still ultimately got a good return out of his inclusion in the trade.

As for what the Rangers got, things haven’t gone quite so well.  Namestnikov was quiet down the stretch but his performance with Tampa Bay before the trade was still good enough to land him a two-year, $8MM contract that would take him to unrestricted free agency.  One year later after a quiet season, he was flipped in a cap-clearing trade for minor league blueliner Nick Ebert and a fourth-round pick in 2021 that was used on Kalle Vaisanen.  Not a great return on the impact forward they were hoping Namestnikov would be.  He’s now in Detroit and is a candidate to be moved by March 21st.

Howden was a first-round pick of the Lightning back in 2016 (27th overall) and profiled as a key two-way center after putting up some impressive numbers in junior.  However, that offensive output didn’t materialize in the pros and after scoring just 16 goals in 178 games over parts of three seasons with the Rangers, they gave up on him, sending him to Vegas for a 2022 fourth-round pick.  Howden has actually done fairly well this season with 18 points in 39 games for the Golden Knights despite spending a lot of time on the fourth line.

Hajek was another player who impressed at the junior level and it looked as if he’d become a quality NHL defenseman before too long.  While he was a regular for a lot of last season, he was a fixture on the third pairing with sheltered minutes and this year, he has been a frequent healthy scratch.  They don’t want to lose him for nothing on waivers but this is a situation where if they move him, the return will almost certainly be as underwhelming as Howden’s was.

As for the draft picks, it’s a bit too early to make any significant conclusions on those.  The first-rounder yielded defenseman Nils Lundkvist and while he has been fairly quiet in his first season in North America, his track record of offensive success in Sweden is promising.  The second-rounder turned into center Karl Henriksson who isn’t putting up big numbers in Frolunda of the SHL but is holding down a regular spot in the lineup.  Both could certainly be part of New York’s future with Lundkvist getting a sniff of NHL action earlier this season.

For New York to have any chance of salvaging any sort of value from this trade, they’ll need those prospects to become impact players.  They’re down to Vaisanen, Lundkvist, Henriksson, a fourth-round pick, and Hajek (or whatever limited return they get for him).  That’s not a great return from a trade that they were hoping would give them several long-term building blocks for the future, a cautionary tale for how even trading for players that appear to be quality prospects can still not work out as well as intended.  Meanwhile, Tampa Bay has won a couple of Stanley Cup titles since then and while McDonagh’s contract may not age great considering he’s signed through 2026, he’s still playing an important role for them.  The biggest swap of the 2018 deadline looks like a clear-cut victory for them as a result.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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