Avalanche Activate Scott Wedgewood; Reassign Jack Ahcan, Isak Posch
Goaltender Scott Wedgewood is back with the Colorado Avalanche after welcoming the birth of his second child. He has been activataed from the non-roster list, while defenseman Jack Ahcan and goaltender Isak Posch have been reassigned to the minor-leagues.
Ahcan has played three games since being recalled before Wednesday’s shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks. He recorded one assist, three shots on goal, and a minus-one in the trio of appearances. Those marks bring Ahcan up to two points in nine NHL games this season. He also leads the AHL’s Colorado Eagles defense in scoring with 24 points in 29 games. The 28 year old has proven a reliable utility-knife down Colorado’s depth chart. He will return to a minor-league role and stay a top call-up option for the next time the Avalanche are in need.
Posch did not play with the Avalanche on what was the first call-up of his pro career. He has recorded a 12-5-5 record and .902 save percentage in 20 games as an AHL rookie this season.
Wedgewood missed Colorado’s last two games on his personal leave. Top goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood took over the net and posted a 1-1 record, while allowing eight goals. Wedgewood has earned the lion’s share of Colorado’s starts this season, while Blackwood recovered from injury. He has recorded a dazzling 20-3-5 record and .918 save percentage in 30 games, both just better than Blackwood’s 14-3-1 record and .911 Sv%. The two will continue to operate as one of the best one-two-punches in the league now that Wedgewood is back with the team.
Senators Activate Linus Ullmark From Non-Roster List
The Senators have reinstated Linus Ullmark to the active roster for today’s game against the Golden Knights, per Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. He won’t be getting the start but will serve as the backup to Mads Søgaard.
Tonight will be Ullmark’s first time dressing for a game in nearly a month. After conceding four goals on 14 shots against the Maple Leafs on Dec. 27 and being pulled from the game, he took a personal leave of absence from the team the following day.
He’s been practicing with Ottawa for more than a week to get back into game conditioning, though. He first returned to team skates on Jan. 16 and will likely be ticketed for his first start next Wednesday against the Avalanche without a conditioning stint with AHL Belleville.
Ottawa hasn’t gotten good goaltending out of any personnel they’ve tried this season. It’s toughest to swallow, though, when those numbers are coming from a goalie with the fifth-highest cap hit among active netminders. Even still, Ullmark’s .881 SV% and 2.95 GAA are the best among the five goalies to suit up for the Sens this year, and he’s the only one with a winning record at 14-8-5. Regardless of his struggles, he’s been the Sens’ clear-cut best option this season and will be their best chance to win down the stretch.
While this season looks more and more like a lost one, Ullmark getting his numbers back to last season’s form and retaining his confidence after his reset would bode well for the Sens’ chances of getting back to the playoffs next year. With a .909 SV% and 13.8 goals saved above expected, he was one of the biggest reasons Ottawa ended its eight-year playoff drought in 2024-25.
Image courtesy of John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images.
Wild Reassign David Spacek
The Wild have reassigned defenseman David Spacek to AHL Iowa, the team announced. There is no corresponding move yet, although it could be an indication that Zach Bogosian will be ready to come off injured reserve for Tuesday’s game against the Blackhawks.
Taken in the fifth round of the 2022 draft, Spacek is in his third season with the organization and has earned his first set of recalls – three of them, to be exact – this season. The 6’0″ righty has been mostly used as press box fodder but finally made his NHL debut this month, suiting up twice against the Jets on Jan. 15 and against the Canadiens on Jan. 20.
The son of longtime NHL defender Jaroslav Spacek had his ice time capped at just 10:45 per game, recording a -1 rating with two blocks and one hit. He was otherwise held off the scoresheet and controlled just 19.6% of shot attempts at even strength, the worst figure among any Wild skater to step on the ice for them this season.
The Czech puck-mover has put together some good seasons in a disastrous minor-league environment in Iowa, though. He led the team’s blue line in scoring last season with 31 points in 72 games and is now second on the team in scoring overall this season with a 3-16–19 line in 35 showings. He’s also suited up for the Czech men’s national team at the last two World Championships and will be joining the club at next month’s Olympics as NHLers return to the event.
It’s a contract year for Spacek, who’s a pending restricted free agent in the final season of his entry-level agreement. He’s due a two-way qualifying offer of $813,750, something the Wild are likely to offer him if they haven’t reached an agreement by the end of June, given his promising AHL performances.
Senators Recall Mads Sogaard, Reassign Hunter Shepard
Jan. 25: After making it through last night’s game without a goalie injury, the Senators reassigned Shepard to Belleville today, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports. After Reimer allowed four goals on 19 shots for a .789 save percentage in last night’s loss to the Hurricanes, that means Søgaard is the likely starter this evening against the Golden Knights. They’re now back to having an open spot on the active roster.
Jan. 24: The Senators have recalled goaltender Mads Søgaard from AHL Belleville, per a team announcement. To open a roster spot, they placed winger David Perron on injured reserve, per PuckPedia. They announced on Thursday that Perron will miss five to seven weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia.
Ottawa has spent much of the season swapping depth goaltending options to serve as backups to Linus Ullmark or, now, to recent free-agent signing James Reimer while Ullmark remains on leave. This isn’t that. The Senators have had Hunter Shepard backing up Reimer for the last two games, and he’s sticking around. Instead, Ottawa plans to carry three goalies amid the winter storm slated to hit the Eastern seaboard during their back-to-back home games tonight and tomorrow, to avoid a situation where weather prevents them from adding a Belleville netminder in case of injury.
It is the 25-year-old Dane’s third recall of the season. He backed up Ullmark in an overtime loss to the Oilers on Oct. 21 and also dressed for a pair of games earlier this month. He entered an 8-2 loss to the Avalanche on Jan. 8 in relief of Leevi Merilainen and allowed five goals on 16 shots for a harsh .688 SV% and 17.22 GAA.
Small sample size aside, it hasn’t been a kind season for Søgaard, nor has it been one for virtually any Sens netminder in the NHL or AHL. In 18 games with Belleville, he’s posted a .889 SV% and 4-8-4 record with a 3.30 GAA and one shutout.
While Søgaard was the third goalie taken in the 2019 draft behind Spencer Knight and Pyotr Kochetkov, it’s becoming abundantly clear that a stable NHL future isn’t in the cards for the 6’7″, 231-lb giant. In 30 appearances for the Sens since debuting five years ago, he’s logged an 11-11-3 record with a .875 SV% and 3.70 GAA.
Nonetheless, he will be heading to Italy next month to serve with teammate Lars Eller on Denmark’s Olympic team. It’s his second time on the men’s national team roster for a non-qualifying tournament, last suiting up as the backup at the 2021 World Championship.
Kings Activate Trevor Moore From Injured Reserve
The Kings announced they’ve activated forward Trevor Moore from injured reserve. They had two open roster spots, so no corresponding move is required.
Moore returns to the lineup Saturday against the Blues after missing nearly a month. He was initially removed from the lineup due to an illness, but then sustained an upper-body injury that resulted in him being placed on IR on Jan. 8.
Tonight thus marks Moore’s first appearance of the calendar year. It hasn’t been a season to remember so far for the 30-year-old.
After being a consistent 40-to-50-point presence through much of his time in L.A., Moore is shooting at just 7.5% in 2025-26 with only 1.81 shots on goal and 3.65 shot attempts per game, some of his lowest numbers since emerging as a true top-nine threat at the beginning of the decade. He has just five goals and 13 points in 37 appearances, a far cry from the career-best 31 goals and 57 points he had just two years ago.
The Kings, who score the third-fewest goals in the league at 2.57 per game, simply need more from him and others in the stretch run to ensure their postseason streak doesn’t end at four seasons. With a 20-16-13 record through 49 games for 53 points and a .541 points percentage, L.A. currently sits ninth in the Western Conference and out of the playoff picture. Their strong possession numbers likely give them a leg up on their chief competitors, the Sharks and Kraken, though.
Wild Activate Matt Boldy From Injured Reserve
The Wild are expected to activate winger Matt Boldy from injured reserve before tonight’s matchup against the Panthers, Joe Smith of The Athletic reports. They had a roster spot open after demoting Hunter Haight and Ben Jones to the minors yesterday.
Much was made about how the Wild would handle losing two pillars of its top-six forward group when Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek landed on IR last week. Luckily, they didn’t have to worry too much as their stints were brief. Eriksson Ek returned to the lineup for Thursday’s overtime thriller against the Red Wings, while Boldy’s absence due to his lower-body injury ends after only four games. He last played on Jan. 15 against the Jets.
Boldy will reunite with Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson on the second line, comprising what’s been head coach John Hynes’ most-used trio this season – and for good reason. In 256 minutes together at 5-on-5, they’ve controlled 55.0% of expected goals and have an incredible +14 goal differential, outscoring opponents 17-3, per MoneyPuck.
Minnesota now has a fully healthy forward group once again. They haven’t been able to say that very often this season, only having all options available up front in 10 out of 52 games. For an offense that’s ninth in the league since the beginning of January at 3.55 goals per game, Boldy’s return should help prop up that momentum.
He remains Minnesota’s clear-cut secondary offensive weapon behind Kirill Kaprizov, sitting tied with him for the team lead in goals with 27 and sitting second in points with 51 in 48 games. If he can keep up his career-best 17.2% shooting rate, he’ll likely eclipse the point per game mark for the first time in his five-year career.
Panthers Activate Brad Marchand Off IR
What started as a day-to-day injury turned into a considerably longer absence for Panthers winger Brad Marchand. However, it appears the counter will stop at two-and-a-half weeks as the team has activated him off injured reserve, according to the NHL’s Media Site.
The 37-year-old suffered an undisclosed injury early this month against Toronto. Initially deemed to be held out for precautionary reasons, Marchand wound up missing seven games due to the injury, taking one of Florida’s top offensive performers out of the lineup. Head coach Paul Maurice had phrased the injury as something that Marchand had been dealing with for a while and the hope was that some time off would stop it from becoming worse.
After playing a bit more of a limited role following his acquisition from Boston last season, injuries put Marchand into a top-line spot this year. He certainly has made the most of it, picking up 23 goals and 23 assists in just 41 games; he’s only one point behind Sam Reinhart for the team lead despite playing in eight fewer contests.
With his return and the recent return by winger Matthew Tkachuk, Florida’s offense is about the healthiest it has been all season long. They’re still without Aleksander Barkov and depth players Tomas Nosek and Jonah Gadjovich but they now have all of their available top-six pieces healthy. They’ll need them if they want to make up the five points needed to get themselves into at least a Wild Card position to try to defend their back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.
The Panthers opened up a roster spot earlier this week when they sent center Jack Studnicka down after clearing waivers. With no recalls since then, they still had the open slot to activate Marchand without any other moves being needed.
Canucks Recall Nikita Tolopilo, Assign Jiri Patera To AHL
In Thatcher Demko’s absence, the Canucks appear intent on not having just one player serving as Kevin Lankinen’s backup. Instead, their goalie swapping continues as the team announced (Twitter link) that Nikita Tolopilo has been recalled from AHL Abbotsford while Jiri Patera has been sent back to Abbotsford.
Tolopilo struggled mightily during his latest recall earlier this month as he allowed six goals to both Montreal and Edmonton. That brought his NHL totals this season to a 3.98 GAA and a .881 SV% in six outings. He fared a little better in the minors after being sent down last weekend, allowing five goals on 54 shots in two starts since last weekend’s demotion. Over the year with them, Tolopilo has a 2.94 GAA and a .901 SV% in 13 games.
As for Patera, he didn’t see any NHL action over the past week while up with Vancouver and he has made just one appearance with them this season, allowing seven goals in a loss to Florida. The 26-year-old has been Abbotsford’s top performer in goal, posting a 2.49 GAA with a .915 SV% in 16 outings with them and will now get some game action in after last playing on January 16th.
With no proven player capable of stepping into that interim number two role, it wouldn’t be overly surprising if these two netminders get flipped once again before the Olympic break next month.
Sabres Acquire Gavin Bayreuther From Hurricanes
The Sabres and Hurricanes have made a small swap of AHL depth. Buffalo announced that it has acquired defenseman Gavin Bayreuther from Carolina in exchange for winger Viktor Neuchev. Bayreuther has subsequently been assigned to AHL Rochester while Neuchev will be sent to AHL Chicago.
Bayreuther returned to North America this season after playing for Lausanne in Switzerland in 2024-25. The 31-year-old inked a one-year, two-way deal with the Hurricanes that carried a guaranteed salary of $150K. He received a pair of recalls to Carolina, one in November and one in December, but hasn’t seen any NHL playing time this season. Instead, he has suited up in 33 games with the Wolves, notching four goals and nine assists.
Bayreuther does have a reasonable amount of NHL experience in his career, however. He has suited up in 122 games at the top level over parts of four seasons with the bulk of that playing time coming over three years with Columbus. In those appearances, Bayreuther has five goals and 23 assists along with 139 blocked shots while averaging a little more than 15 minutes per game of playing time. He’ll serve as some veteran recallable depth with both Conor Timmins and Jacob Bryson dealing with injuries. He will be eligible for unrestricted free agency once again this summer.
As for Neuchev, the 22-year-old was a third-round pick by Buffalo back in 2022, going 74th overall, following a strong offensive showing in the MHL where he finished eighth in league scoring with Avto Yekaterinburg, tallying 67 points in 61 games. He was promoted to Yekaterinburg’s KHL squad the following season and while he only collected a dozen points in 57 outings, it was still enough for Buffalo to sign him to an entry-level deal, one that he is in the final season of.
In 57 games in 2023-24 (his first season in North America), Neuchev had 11 goals and 17 assists. Injuries limited him to just 39 games last season although he was reasonably productive with seven goals and 15 helpers in those outings. This season, his output is down a bit as he has six goals and ten assists through 34 contests and will now look to make an impression in Carolina’s prospect pool. He will be a restricted free agent this summer with the Hurricanes needing to issue a two-way qualifying offer to retain his rights.
Avalanche Recall Isak Posch, Move Scott Wedgewood To Non-Roster Status
The Avalanche have made a pair of roster moves as they get set to embark on a road trip beginning Sunday in Toronto. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled goaltender Isak Posch from AHL Colorado. To make room on the roster, netminder Scott Wedgewood has been designated to non-roster status.
Posch is in his first full professional season after signing an entry-level deal with the Avs last March following two seasons at St. Cloud State University. His first taste of the pros has been successful as the 23-year-old has a 2.45 GAA along with a .902 SV% in 20 games with the Eagles and he’ll now be rewarded with a few days of NHL pay for his efforts. He’ll serve as Mackenzie Blackwood’s backup until Wedgewood is able to return.
As for Wedgewood, this is expected to be a short-term absence. His wife just gave birth and the team is granting him a bit of extra time with his family. He’s expected to rejoin the Avalanche on their road trip. It has been a breakout year for the 33-year-old who has a 2.14 GAA with a .918 SV% in 30 starts this season, earning himself a two-year, $5MM extension for his efforts.