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Snapshots: Eriksson Ek, Brodin, Matthews, Joshua

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Now in do-or-die territory to qualify for the 2023-24 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Minnesota Wild will receive some reinforcements to their lineup tonight. Sarah McLellan of Star Tribune Sports reports that forward Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin will return to the active roster tonight.

Eriksson Ek has missed the last five games for the Wild, who lost two big games to the St. Louis Blues in his absence. As the team’s top center, Eriksson Ek has scored 29 goals and 60 points for Minnesota this year over 66 games played.

Brodin on the other hand, has only missed the last two games for the Wild but has had significant injury concerns throughout this season. Even though he’s only managed to suit up in 51 contests, Brodin still sits second on Minnesota’s blue line with 23:37 ATOI and has scored seven goals and 23 points overall.

Other snapshots:

  • One player who may not be in the lineup for the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight is forward Auston Matthews, who is now designated as a game-time decision due to an illness (X Link). Even though Toronto is destined for a third-place finish in the Atlantic Division, it would be a tough blow not to have Matthews in the lineup, as he is still attempting to score 60 goals on the season for the second time in his career.
  • In tonight’s potential Western Conference Final preview, the Vancouver Canucks will see the return of a key player, as Dakota Joshua will return to the lineup (X Link). It will be Joshua’s first game back since February 13th, as the Michigan native suffered an upper-body injury in the team’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Snapshots: Seguin, Felcman, Panthers, Escrow

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Top Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin will be held out of the team’s Tuesday night game, per an interview between NHL.com’s Mike Heika and head coach Pete DeBoer (Twitter link). DeBoer added that Seguin hasn’t faced a setback and that this move is simply a rest day out of caution. Seguin made his return from an 11-game absence on March 20th, after bearing with a lower-body injury that held him out for a month. He’s scored four points in three games since returning, including a three-point performance on Sunday in 17-and-a-half minutes of ice time – the most he’s played since mid-January. The performance must have taken a toll on Seguin, who will now be held out of the lineup despite 22 goals and 49 points in 61 games this season.

Ty Dellandrea is expected to fill in for Seguin in the Stars lineup, set to play in his 41st game of the season. He has two goals and nine points on the year so far, a big step down from the 28 points he recorded in 82 games last season. This is Dellandrea’s second season in a full-time NHL role, though he’s retreated to being a healthy scratch after playing in every game last season.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Chicago Blackhawks have signed 2023 third-round draft pick Jiri Felcman to an AHL amateur try-out for the remainder of the season, per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link). Felcman is moving to North American pros after spending much of the season in Switzerland’s U20 league, where he’s managed 23 points in 26 games. The 18-year-old centerman has also scored four points in 13 Swiss League games – Switzerland’s second-tier league – and one assist in five National League games – Switzerland’s top league. His move to North America will void his previous commitment to Langnau of the National League for next season.
  • The Florida Panthers welcomed both Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling back to the lineup on Tuesday per a team announcement (Twitter link). Barkov has missed the team’s last three games with an undisclosed injury, while Forsling is returning after missing two games with illness. These returns will likely bump Kyle Okposo and Uvis Balinskis out of the lineup.
  • Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that players are expected to receive around half of the 6% escrow they paid this season if the NHL’s revenue projections hold.  That’s particularly notable as it suggests that the potential exists for future salary caps to go up quicker than anticipated.  As it stands, there is a maximum 5% escalator on the cap for next season as dictated by the CBA but that can be waived if both the NHL and NHLPA agree.

Snapshots: Lindholm, Stalock, Crotty, Wilsby, NCAA Bracket

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Canucks forward Elias Lindholm has struggled as of late and snapped a 15-game goalless streak last night against his former team in Calgary.  It appears there’s a reason for those struggles as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported last night (video link) that the veteran is set to meet with a specialist in the coming days to determine the extent of the undisclosed injury that he is currently playing through.  The 29-year-old has just nine points in 22 games since being acquired at the end of January and has been dropped to the third line in recent games, not the type of impact they were looking for from their biggest trade acquisition of the season.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Ducks announced that they recalled goaltender Alex Stalock from AHL San Diego. The 36-year-old had been brought up four times this season but has yet to see game action with Anaheim, instead serving in a short-term backup role.  He’ll be reprising that role against Tampa Bay with John Gibson out for personal reasons.  Stalock has played in a dozen games for the Gulls this season while playing on a one-year, one-way deal worth $800K, posting a 3.72 GAA with a .894 SV%.  He’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
  • The Coyotes announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Cameron Crotty from AHL Tucson on an emergency basis. The 24-year-old is in his fourth professional season and this will be his first recall and first game as he took the place of Josh Brown who was out due to an illness.  Crotty has three goals and nine assists in 45 games with the Roadrunners this season.
  • Predators prospect Adam Wilsby has been linked to SHL Farjestad next season, notes Varlands Folkblad’s Johan Ekberg. The 23-year-old blueliner was a fourth-round pick back in 2020 and has spent his three-year entry-level deal playing with AHL Milwaukee where he has six goals and eight assists through 49 games so far.  A pending restricted free agent, it might make more sense for Wilsby to return home over continuing to play in the minors as he’s likely behind several prospects on Nashville’s organizational depth chart.
  • The NCAA revealed the official bracket for the tournament leading to the Frozen Four and the DI Men’s Ice Hockey Championship with Boston College serving as the top seed. Games get underway on Thursday and as teams are eliminated, we’ll start to see some of the more notable free agents start to sign while others will forego the rest of their college eligibility to turn pro.

Snapshots: Graves, St. Ivany, Krug, Oshie, Protas

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have shared that defenseman Ryan Graves will be stepping away for a paternity leave, opening the door for rookie Jack St. Ivany to make his NHL debut. St. Ivany has flirted with his inaugural game for much of March, getting moved between the NHL and AHL four different times in the last week. He was clearly motivated by the string of moves, recording a career-high three-point night in his latest AHL game – his first since receiving the first NHL call-up of his career. The performance broke a 10-game scoring drought and accounted for a fifth of St. Ivany’s 15 points on the season. He’ll now have a golden chance to build on the hot night, potentially poised for a big role with Graves’ average of 19 minutes a night now up for grabs.

Other notes from around the league:

  • St. Louis Blues defenseman Torey Krug is expected to return to the lineup on Friday after sititng out with a chest injury on Thursday, per NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce. It was Krug’s first absence of the year, after appearing in the Blues’ first 69 games. He’s managed three goals and 34 points in those games. This is Krug’s first time playing in more than 65 games since the 2017-18 season.  His return is expected to bump Scott Perunovich back out of the lineup.
  • The Washington Capitals will continue to be without T.J. Oshie and Aliaksei Protas, head coach Spencer Carbery told The Hockey News. Both players sat out of the team’s Wednesday night loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oshie is bearing with an upper-body injury, while Protas has a lingering lower-body injury suffered on March 9th. The team will eagerly anticipate their return, now left to lean on Michael Sgarbossa and Ivan Miroshnichenko as top-six fill-ins.

Snapshots: Oshie, Protas, Brodin, Gruden

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Before the puck drop in the team’s game tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Washington Capitals announced two injuries to their lineup. In the announcement, the Capitals stated that forward T.J. Oshie is out with an upper-body injury, and Aliaksei Protas is out with a lower-body injury.

Although both players were given a day-to-day injury designation, it is much of the same for Oshie this season. Oshie has only played in 43 of a possible 68 games for the Capitals this season, only managing 11 goals and 19 points in the process. With one more year remaining on his eight-year, $46MM contract after this year, the injury concern is certainly piling up for the veteran forward.

Protas, on the other hand, has sustained much more health than Oshie this season, skating in 65 games for Washington. Earning a five-year, $16.875MM contract extension in January, Protas has turned into quite the playmaker for the Capitals, scoring five goals and 28 points altogether.

Other snapshots:

  • Moving out West, the Minnesota Wild announced that defenseman Jonas Brodin would miss the team’s game tonight against the Los Angeles Kings with a lower-body injury. It will mark the 19th game that Brodin has missed this season with injury, as an upper-body injury, as well as another lower-body injury, have kept him out of the lineup for multiple games at a time. Nevertheless, Brodin is still the second-highest-scoring defenseman for the Wild this season, putting up seven goals and 23 points in 51 games.
  • After filling in for the injured Jeff Carter last night, Jonathan Gruden has been returned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after being recalled on an emergency loan. Gruden will return to a situation in WBS where he has been largely successful this year, scoring 13 goals and 24 points in 43 games at the AHL level.

Snapshots: Kovalenko, Chmelar, Joshua

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Earlier today, the Colorado Avalanche announced that the team had finally brought up-and-coming prospect, Nikolai Kovalenko, to North America. Not under the best pretenses, however, as the team announced Kovalenko would start with their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, to rehabilitate from a leg injury suffered during his time in the Kontinental Hockey League.

The obvious hope for the Avalanche is that Kovalenko is eventually able to play at the NHL level at some point this season. Playing for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL for the last two years, Kovalenko has scored 32 goals and 89 points in 98 games after being a sixth-round pick by Colorado in the 2018 NHL Draft.

The Eagles do have a game tonight as well as one tomorrow against the Milwaukee Admirals, but it is unlikely that Kovalenko will draw into the lineup for either of those two matchups. After that, AHL Colorado does not have another game until March 29th, which may set a timeline for Kovalenko’s debut within the Avalanche organization.

Other snapshots:

  • Although nothing is official, Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal is reporting that the New York Rangers are expected to sign Jaroslav Chmelar after his season with Providence College came to an end on Saturday. Chmelar was originally a fifth-round pick of the Rangers back in the 2021 NHL Draft and has spent the last two years in the United States after coming over from his native Finland. Over 59 games in the Hockey East Division, Chmelar scored 12 goals and 28 points overall, after a leg injury requiring surgery cut his season short this year.
  • Recently being put on the team’s long-term injured reserve, Vancouver Canucks forward Dakota Joshua is progressing with his injury recovery, but the team is still being cautious with his load management (X Link). An important depth scorer for the Canucks this season, Joshua has scored 13 goals and 26 points over 53 games this year.

Snapshots: Brind’Amour, Sergachev, Fontaine, U Sports

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While most teams prefer not to have their head coach in the last year of their contract, the Hurricanes have now done so twice when it comes to Rod Brind’Amour who is once again on an expiring deal.  Despite that, GM Don Waddell told NHL.com’s Dan Rosen that a lot of the legwork might already be done, saying they’ve “agreed on everything”.  They sat down before the trade deadline but haven’t crossed paths much since then with Waddell on the road at one point and now Carolina is just wrapping up a road trip.  At this point, it’s a matter of when, not if, a new contract for Brind’Amour is completed.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev announced on Instagram that he has resumed skating as he works his way back from a leg injury sustained last month. After he underwent surgery, head coach Jon Cooper indicated that the blueliner was at least out for the rest of the regular season and likely a good chunk of the playoffs so Sergachev is still a long way from being able to return but the fact he’s back on the ice already is certainly an encouraging sign for Tampa Bay.
  • Predators prospect Gunnarwolfe Fontaine has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). The 23-year-old was a seventh-round pick by Nashville back in 2020 (202nd overall) and has been a capable producer in his four seasons at Northeastern, capped off by a 27-point showing this past season.  He’ll now try to beat that with another school for his fifth and final college campaign.
  • While we often talk about college free agents and undrafted CHL free agents at this time of year, there is another group of prospects that could sign deals in the coming days, from U Sports, Canada’s collegiate level. Edmonton was first out of the gate with their signing of Connor Ungar.  49 Sports’ Ben Steiner provides an overview of some of the players that could ink pro deals in the coming days and weeks including several players who were drafted but ultimately didn’t sign with the team that picked them.

Snapshots: Guenette, Hamonic, Edstrom, St. Ivany, Pleshkov

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It’s been a busy St. Patrick’s Day for the transactions log, kicked off by the Ottawa Senators’ assigning of Max Guenette to the minor leagues (Twitter link). Guenette has been with the NHL roster since the first week of March. He’s since appeared in six games with the Senators, going without a point but adding one penalty and a -1. It was Guenette’s first extended stint in the NHL, after playing his second career game in the league in February. He’s still searching for his first NHL point, though he has managed five goals and 29 points in 49 AHL games this season.

Guenette’s assignment is a sign that Travis Hamonic could be nearing a return, says Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun (Twitter Link). Hamonic has been on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury since March 3rd. He previously missed five games ahead of the All-Star Break, bearing with an upper-body injury suffered in late January. He’s played in just 47 of Ottawa’s 65 games this season, recording six points, 40 penalty minutes, and a -9. Even if he is nearing a return, it’s not likely that Hamonic will take on a major role, averaging just below 15 minutes of ice time this season. Still, he adds the experience of an 840-game veteran to the lineup, replacing the rookie Guenette.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The New York Rangers have sent Adam Edstrom back to the AHL (Twitter Link). He was recalled to the NHL on March 15th under emergency conditions, though he hasn’t appeared in a game with the Rangers since March 4th. Edstrom has received the first 11 games of his NHL career this season and has managed two goals, two penalty minutes, and a +2. The 6’7″ bruiser has also added 30 hits, averaging the fourth-most hits on the Rangers lineup, behind William Cuylle, Matt Rempe, and Jacob Trouba.
  • Pittsburgh has also made a roster move, sending down defenseman Jack St. Ivany from his first professional recall, per CapFriendly (Twitter Link). St. Ivany didn’t receive his debut in his first stint in the NHL, serving as a healthy scratch in Pittsburgh’s Saturday afternoon loss to the New York Rangers. He’ll now return to the AHL, where he’s already managed 12 points, 30 penalty minutes, and a +14 in 52 games.
  • Hockey history has been made in Russia’s VHL – the league immediately below the KHL – when SKA-Neva took on AKM. The game went to five overtimes and 21-year-old goaltender Artemi Pleshkov carried a shutout until the very last shot, saving an incredible 124 shots. The 125th shot was too much, though, as Pleshkov and SKA fell 1-0 after 158 minutes of hockey. Pleshkov, who is undrafted in the NHL, has been fantastic this season, recording 12 wins and a .943 save percentage in 23 VHL games this season. He’s also managed a .926 in 10 KHL games, and a .947 in seven playoff games. His amazing game tops Alexander Borodulya’s 107-save performance in the Belarussian Extraliga – the previous record.

Snapshots: Ducks, Bortuzzo, Larkin

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Prior to their game tonight against Winnipeg, the Ducks announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Radko Gudas was out with an upper-body injury while center Mason McTavish was out with a lower-body issue.  Gudas was injured early in Thursday’s contest against Minnesota while McTavish made it through the game.  Gudas is averaging 19:24 per night in his first year on Anaheim’s back end, his highest ATOI since the 2015-16 season, his first in Philadelphia.  McTavish, meanwhile, has had a strong sophomore year with 40 points in 56 games so far, good for fourth on team scoring.  There’s word for how long either player will be out for.  Notably, Anaheim could only dress 11 forwards so if McTavish is to miss any time beyond tonight’s action, a recall will likely be coming from AHL San Diego.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • The Islanders have activated defenseman Robert Bortuzzo off LTIR, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link). The 34-year-old was acquired from St. Louis back in December but then suffered a lower-body injury in early January, one that has kept him out for the last ten weeks.  Bortuzzo has been limited to third-pairing duty in his 15 appearances so far this season as he’s averaging just 13:40 per night while chipping in with 20 hits and 21 blocked shots.  Bortuzzo is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
  • Red Wings center Dylan Larkin briefly took part in practice today as he works his way back from a lower-body injury, relays MLive’s Ansar Khan. However, he has already been ruled out for their two games this weekend and head coach Derek Lalonde expressed some hesitance about his captain returning on Tuesday as well.  Detroit has lost five straight without Larkin, who is still tied for the team lead in scoring with 26 goals and 28 assists in 55 games so far.

Snapshots: Bruins, Perry, Johnson

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The NCAA free agency frenzy has kicked off and the Boston Bruins could be in the mix for one of the top names, with the Boston Globe’s Matt Porter sharing that the team is interested in Notre Dame’s Ryan Bischel. Bischel has been with the Fighting Irish for the last five seasons, confidently taking over the team’s starting role over the last two. And he’s been tremendous with the opportunity, posting 16 wins and a .931 save percentage in 37 games last season and 15 wins and a .924 in 36 games this year. He managed his high marks while facing an average of 33 shots against each game this season. The performances have earned Bischel plenty of recognition, getting named a finalist for Big Ten Goaltender of the Year this season, after winning the award last year.

Goaltending has been a major sore spot for countless teams this year and any team in need of goaltending depth is likely trying to find out their chances of signing Bischel. That could make it hard for Boston – who already boasts fantastic depth with Linus Ullmark, Jeremy Swayman, and Brandon Bussi – to find an advantage in negotiations. But Bischel’s addition could be aptly timed, with Boston also entertaining trading Ullmark around the Trade Deadline. How NCAA free agency negotiations play out could go a long way toward determining what the Bruins want to do next.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The NHL, NHLPA, Chicago Blackhawks, and Corey Perry have reached a settlement relating to Perry’s termination from the Blackhawks on November 29th, as first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Rather than have Perry file a grievance with the league, the two sides agreed to a financial settlement. Perry signed with the Edmonton Oilers on January 22nd and has since scored five goals and seven points in 20 games with the Canadian club. This settlement marks a success in the Player’s Association’s protection of guaranteed contracts.
  • Chicago Blackhawks forward Reese Johnson has entered concussion protocol and didn’t practice with the team on Thursday, per Charlie Roumeliotis of NBCS Chicago. Johnson has been a routine depth forward for Chicago, scoring five points in 42 games. It’s his second season of full-time NHL action, after posting four goals and six points in 57 games last year. Rookie Landon Slaggert is set to make his NHL debut in Johnson’s absence, joining Chicago after the conclusion of Notre Dame’s season.

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