Evening Notes: Liljegren, Dubois, Fensore
San Jose Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren exited the team’s Saturday win over the Colorado Avalanche in the first period after a deflected puck hit him in the face while he was on the bench. The injury looked painful, but Liljegren isn’t expected to miss the long-term with a serious injury, head coach Ryan Warsofsky told Bay Area News Group’s Curtis Pashelka.
Liljegren recorded seven minutes of ice time and a minus-one before exiting. The injury forced an end to a red-hot streak for the veteran defender. He scored three points across his last three games, prior to Saturday, and averaged over 24 minutes of ice time across his last five. He’s begun to show some sea legs after being thrust to the top of a young Sharks blue-line in the early season. Liljegren and defense partner Dmitry Orlov have outscored their opponents three-to-one – the best mark on San Jose blue-line. That will make him tough to replace, even though he’s only managed three assists in eight games.
The Sharks are currently carrying Sam Dickinson and Vincent Iorio as their extra defenders. Right-shot Iorio would likely be the preferred fill-in, though Warsofsky wouldn’t committ to either defender yet.
Other notes from around the league:
- It seems the Washington Capitals have avoided serious injury with centerman Pierre-Luc Dubois, who sustained an injury in Friday’s game against the New York Islanders. He’s been designated as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. Dubois was playing his third game back from a previous injury that held him out for two weeks. His struggles to find the scoresheet stuck around, though, pulling the reigning 66-point scorer through a sixth game with no scoring this season. He will miss Washington’s Saturday match against the Buffalo Sabres, but should return to his hunt for a score in the first week of November.
- With K’Andre Miller nearing a return from injury, the Carolina Hurricanes have assigned defenseman Domenick Fensore back to the minor-leagues. Fensore played in his first game of the NHL season, and third of his career, on October 28th. He recorded two shots on net and a minus-two. He’s been far more productive in the AHL, where his seven points in four games still leads the Chicago Wolves in scoring, despite the team playing two games without him. Fensore will now return to his cushy top-defender role, where he’ll look to bolster a Wolves offense that’s only scored three goals across their last three games.
Kings Place Warren Foegele On IR
The Los Angeles Kings have moved forward Warren Foegele to injured reserve with an upper-body injury. The move is retroactive to Foegele’s last appearance on October 26th, making him eligible to be reactivated as soon as November 2nd. It seems he’ll be out for longer than that, though, with head coach Jim Hiller telling Mayor’s Manor that Foegele “isn’t close”.
Foegele was injured on an awkward hit into the boards from Chicago Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno. The hit seemed to jam up Foegele’s shoulder, though his injury hasn’t been specified beyond “upper-body”.
This absence brought an end to a 174-game ironman streak that Foegele had been riding since the 2023-24 season. He posted a career-year in his first year with the Kings last season, setting a career-high 24 goals and 46 points while averaging 16 minutes of ice time. Both his role, and his production, have dwindled this season. He has just one goal in 10 games on the year, while averaging 13 minutes.
His role has been much more defensive-oriented. The line of Foegele, Phillip Danault, and Trevor Moore has recorded the second-lowest expected-goals-against per-60 (xGA/60) of any routine Kings line. That hard-nosed, high-IQ, and defensive style has underscored Foegele’s game even as he struggles to find the back of the net.
The Kings have turned towards Jeff Malott, Alex Turcotte, and Joel Armia to fill Foegele’s minutes. Malott has one goal, and Turcotte has one assist, in two games in that span. The Kings have been better helped by 40-year-old winger Corey Perry, who has three goals, four points, and a plus-five since Foegele’s injury. That surge has helped move focus away from the Kings’ bottom-six, and away from less-experienced company filling in. Los Angeles is likely to continue rotating through depth wingers as they wait for more news of Foegele’s timeline.
Of note, the Kings opted to move Foegele to IR, and clear a roster spot, after placing defenseman Kyle Burroughs on waivers. The move leaves them with an open spot that could be used to recall the Ontario Reign’s leading scorer, Taylor Ward, or prospects Andre Lee or Francesco Pinelli.
Capitals Recall Spencer Smallman
On the heels of Pierre-Luc Dubois suffering a lower-body injury in last night’s game against the Islanders, the Capitals have added some extra forward depth to their roster. The team announced that they’ve recalled winger Spencer Smallman from AHL Hershey. Washington had an open roster spot so no further moves were needed.
The 29-year-old is getting the first recall of his career in his second season with the Capitals. Smallman has been a consistent producer at the AHL level, notching between 21 and 34 points in each of the last four seasons with the latter number coming last year, helping to earn Smallman a two-year, two-way contract back in April.
This season, Smallman is producing at a similar clip, picking up two goals and an assist through six games with Hershey.
As for Dubois, he suffered his injury late in the first period (his second lower-body issue of the season) on Friday night in a collision with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and needed assistance to get off the ice. There was no immediate update postgame but given the difficulty he had putting weight on his leg following the injury, it’s reasonable to infer that he’s going to miss some time, necessitating Smallman’s promotion.
Central Notes: Zuccarello, Kantserov, Aamodt
The Wild could soon be getting a needed boost up front. On Friday, head coach John Hynes indicated (Twitter link) that winger Mats Zuccarello is within a week or so of returning to the lineup. The 38-year-old has yet to suit up this season due to a back injury that also caused him to miss training camp. While Zuccarello isn’t a major scoring threat, he’s one of Minnesota’s better playmakers and is coming off a solid showing in 2024-25 that saw him record 19 goals and 35 assists in 69 games. His eventual return would go a long way to giving them a second scoring line, an area that has been an issue in the early going this season.
Elsewhere in the Central:
- Blackhawks prospect Roman Kantserov is in the final year of his KHL contract, leading some to hope that he will come to North America for next season. Speaking with RG’s Sergey Demidov, the 21-year-old indicated that he’d like to test himself in the NHL but isn’t planning on making a decision on his future until next year when his deal expires. A second-round pick in 2023 (44th overall), Kantserov had 38 points in 47 games last season and is off to a better start in 2025-26, notching a league-high 13 goals and eight assists in 21 appearances so far.
- Wyatt Aamodt’s stint with the Avalanche was short-lived. Just two days after recalling the blueliner, the team announced (Twitter link) that they have sent him back to AHL Colorado. The 27-year-old didn’t play on this recall, keeping his career NHL appearance total at two and his point total at one, a tally in last season’s final game. Aamodt has a goal and five assists in nine games with the Eagles so far this season. The move leaves Colorado with just six healthy blueliners at the moment but Samuel Girard has been skating in recent days and is thought to be nearing a return.
Max Willman Signs In KHL
It took a while but veteran Max Willman has found a team for this season. The KHL announced that the winger has signed with Barys Astana for the rest of the 2025-26 campaign.
The 30-year-old was originally drafted by Buffalo back in 2014, going in the fifth round but he ultimately never signed with them. After playing out his college career, he signed with Philadelphia’s farm team, eventually playing his way into an NHL contract two years later for the 2021-22 campaign.
Willman wound up getting into 41 games with the Flyers that season, seeing more time with them than he did in the minors with AHL Lehigh Valley. However, his playing time at the top level was much more limited the following year as Willman got into just nine games with Philadelphia.
It took some time for Willman to get a guaranteed deal as he played through a training camp tryout in New Jersey before inking a two-way contract for the 2023-24 campaign. However, he performed well enough in the minors to earn an 18-game stint with the Devils plus a new contract well before free agency, giving him some extra security heading into last season. However, he didn’t see any NHL action last season, instead potting 10 goals and 20 assists in 69 games in Utica.
Over his three NHL stints, Willman has seven goals and three assists in 68 games while being considerably more productive in the minors, notching 54 goals and 65 helpers in 244 games over parts of six seasons. With his professional games played total likely to surpass 320 once he gets into some KHL contests, he’ll qualify as a veteran for AHL purposes beginning next season which could significantly affect his chances of returning to play in North America with AHL teams only being allotted five skater slots for veterans in their lineups.
Ilya Samsonov Signs Two-Year Deal With HC Sochi
Free agent goaltender Ilya Samsonov is returning home on a two-year contract with Sochi of the Kontinental Hockey League, the league announced. Sochi had to acquire Samsonov’s KHL signing rights from Metallurg Magnitogorsk, who drafted and developed him before his arrival in North America in 2018, which they did so in exchange for cash.
Samsonov, 28, had held out as long as possible while waiting for a suitable NHL offer to materialize. The 28-year-old was a UFA for the second summer in a row after landing a one-year, $1.8MM deal from the Golden Knights on his second go-around on the open market. He was previously a UFA after being nontendered by the Capitals in 2022. The 2015 first-round pick underwhelmed as Adin Hill‘s backup in Vegas, recording a .891 SV% and 2.82 GAA in 29 starts with a 16-9-4 record. The Knights didn’t shelter him very well defensively, though, meaning he still saved 0.6 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck.
While that last number should have created at least some intrigue on the market, particularly with someone whose raw talent level is as high as Samsonov’s, it didn’t result in a deal. Teams looking for a reliable backup option were likely scared off by his poor overall save percentage over the last two years. He dipped to a .890 mark for the Maple Leafs in 2023-24, bringing his numbers down to a .890 SV% and even 3.00 GAA over 69 starts in the last two years.
It’s been a relatively quick fall for Samsonov, who emerged as Toronto’s 1A option in 2022-23 and backstopped the franchise to its first playoff series win in 19 years. That career year saw Samsonov post a 27-10-5 record in 40 starts while logging a .919 SV%, 2.33 GAA, four shutouts, and 18.0 GSAx that placed him 10th in the league. Samsonov’s league-wide GSAx rank for the following two seasons, however, was 87th in 2023-24 and 46th in 2024-25.
The 6’3″ netminder returns home after playing six seasons in the NHL, the first three coming with the club that drafted him in Washington. He leaves the NHL for now with 200 games played, a 118-48-25 record, 15 shutouts, a 2.77 GAA, and a .902 SV%.
He now joins one of the KHL’s most consistent bottom-feeder clubs in Sochi. They’re 4-12-2 out of the gate this season and haven’t secured a playoff berth since 2019. He comes over as the club’s starter and only capable option between the pipes, Pavel Khomchenko, is out with an undisclosed injury.
During Samsonov’s first stint in the KHL, he won a Gagarin Cup with Metallurg in 2016 and recorded a 33-16-9 record, .929 SV%, 2.20 GAA, and seven shutouts in 73 games over four seasons.
Avalanche Recall Taylor Makar
A pair of brothers could soon be getting a chance to play together in the NHL for the first time. The Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forward Taylor Makar from AHL Colorado. They had two open spots on their active roster, meaning no corresponding move needed to be made to bring him up.
It’s the first recall of Makar’s career. The 24-year-old, the younger brother of star defenseman Cale Makar, was selected by the Avs in the seventh round back in 2021, taking him 220th overall. Makar went on to spend four years in college, three with UMass before transferring to the University of Maine for his senior year, one that saw him record 18 goals and 12 assists. For context, he had a total of 22 points over his first three college campaigns.
That improvement was enough for Colorado to sign Makar to a one-year, entry-level deal for this season. He’s off to a decent start with the Eagles, picking up one goal and three assists in nine games so far this season.
Makar’s recall is likely tied to the fact that winger Gavin Brindley left today’s game against Vegas after taking a hit from Ivan Barbashev and didn’t return. With the Avs only carrying 12 forwards on their active roster before this move, it would appear that Makar would be in line to make his NHL debut if Brindley can’t suit up on Saturday against San Jose.
Devils Sign Jacob Markstrom To Two-Year Extension
After New Jersey re-signed Luke Hughes at the beginning of the month, their focus shifted toward keeping one of their pending UFAs in the fold in goaltender Jacob Markstrom. Those efforts have paid off as the Devils announced that they’ve signed goaltender Jacob Markstrom to a two-year, $12MM contract extension.
The 35-year-old is in his second season with New Jersey after being acquired from Calgary a little before the 2024 draft in exchange for a 2025 first-round pick (used on Cole Reschny) and defenseman Kevin Bahl. The hope was that acquiring him, coupled with the addition of Jake Allen a few months earlier, would help stabilize a goaltending position that had been in some flux for a while.
Mission accomplished on that front. After allowing 281 goals in 2023-24, the Devils cut that amount by 61 last season, allowing the fifth-fewest goals in the league in the process. Markstrom played a big role in that success, posting a 2.50 GAA and a .900 SV% in 49 regular season starts while also putting up a 2.78 GAA and a .911 SV% in their first-round playoff exit at the hands of Carolina. He’s not off to a great start this season, however, with a 5.13 GAA and a .830 SV% in four appearances but he’s also just coming back from a lower-body injury.
Over his 16-year career between Vancouver, Florida, Calgary, and New Jersey, Markstrom has a 243-214-63 record with a 2.72 GAA, a .908 SV%, and 24 shutouts. He has typically been one of the more consistent goalies in recent years, providing a strong return on his current six-year contract, one that expires next summer and also carries a cap hit of $6MM per season. However, the Devils will be responsible for that full amount, unlike now, where the Flames are picking up $1.875MM of Markstrom’s price tag as part of the swap.
A few months ago, New Jersey signed Allen to a five-year deal, a surprising term for someone just a few months younger than Markstrom. But the benefit in doing so was that the cap hit came in at $1.8MM, well below his market value when many expected he’d get more than twice that much per season. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Markstrom’s camp appeared to be looking for something similar, a fixed sum of money but they were open to spreading it out over a longer term like Allen. However, the Devils were firm on a shorter-term agreement, even though it means a higher AAV.
With this deal done, New Jersey now has their goalie tandem intact for the next couple of seasons at a combined $7.8MM price tag, just 7.5% of the projected $104MM Upper Limit for next season. That’s a solid price tag for a capable and experienced tandem, giving GM Tom Fitzgerald a bit of flexibility to work with. With this deal now done, the Devils have a little over $10MM in spending room for next season, per PuckPedia, with pending RFAs Simon Nemec, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Paul Cotter highlighting the list of players in need of new deals over the next ten or so months.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to report the signing.
Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images.
Sabres Recall Isak Rosen, Place Zach Benson On IR
6:34 p.m.: The corresponding move is an injured reserve placement for Zach Benson, who left last night’s loss to the Bruins late in the third period with an undisclosed injury, per Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News. The IR placement rules him out for the Sabres’ next three games, making him available for activation on Nov. 8. A previous injury has limited the 20-year-old to eight appearances this season, but he’s clicking at a point per game with eight assists.
6:12 p.m.: The Sabres have recalled winger Isak Rosen from AHL Rochester, the team announced. With no open roster spots, there’s a corresponding transaction still to come.
Regardless of whether he’s coming up for an injury concern or another reason, the recall is more than earned. The first month of 2025-26 has marked a breakthrough for Rosen, who’s otherwise failed to establish a clear path to an NHL job since being drafted No. 14 overall in 2021. The 6’0″ winger is currently the AHL’s scoring leader with five goals, seven assists, and 12 points through eight games for Rochester.
That’s not to say Rosen never made any progress in his development. His scoring numbers have steadily increased since arriving in North America in 2022. After posting a 14-23–37 scoring line in 66 appearances in his first season in Rochester, he upped his output to a 20-30–50 line in 67 games in 2023-24 and again to a 28-27–55 line in 61 games last year. It’s been a bit of a slow burn for the talented scorer, but he’s now pushing for a job in a way Buffalo can’t ignore without giving him at least one more chance at making an NHL impact.
But during Rosen’s recalls over the last two years, the Sabres haven’t given him much of a leash. He’s averaged only 9:09 of ice time per game and has only one assist in 15 career appearances as a result. When or if he slots into the lineup this time around, it’ll be telling to see whether head coach Lindy Ruff still buries him in fourth-line minutes or gives him a legitimate look at top-nine duties that he’s better suited for.
Capitals Sign Ivan Miroshnichenko To Two-Year Extension
The Capitals have signed winger Ivan Miroshnichenko to a two-year contract extension, per his representation at Gold Star Hockey. It’s a one-way deal worth $1.85MM for a cap hit of $925,000, per PuckPedia. He is in the final season of his entry-level contract and was set to be a restricted free agent next summer without arbitration rights.
A two-year deal keeps Miroshnichenko signed through the 2027-28 season. He’ll still be a restricted free agent then, too, with three years of team control remaining. This is year three in North America for Miroshnichenko, whom Washington selected with the No. 20 overall pick in the 2022 draft. The 6’1″ winger nearly had his hands on an opening-night roster spot this year but was one of their final cuts. Now in his final year of waiver-exempt status, he went without a point in two games with AHL Hershey earlier this month before sustaining an injury that’s kept him out since.
When he gets back on the ice, Miroshnichenko will be looking to continue the momentum from a breakout 2024-25 campaign in Hershey. The physical scoring winger totaled 23 tallies and 42 points in 53 AHL games, leading the club in goals. It was a major breakthrough after he was limited to nine goals and 25 points in 47 appearances for the Bears the year prior.
His transition to the NHL, though, is still coming along. He’s gotten callups of significant length in each of the last two years, totaling 36 appearances. His ice time has been limited, though, averaging 10:51 per game while scoring three goals and seven assists for 10 points. He’s been among Washington’s more physical forwards when on NHL ice, though, averaging two hits per game.
Miroshnichenko’s shooting accuracy against NHL goaltenders is the biggest area where he needs to grow. For someone who will rely on his shot to break into a top-nine role for the Caps in the long term, he’s only finished at a 6.8% clip so far. Getting the puck toward the net hasn’t been a huge issue – he’s averaged 2.7 shot attempts per game in his call-ups – but converting on his chances and creating more high-danger ones is the next step in his development.
It’s hard not to see Miroshnichenko getting a call-up later this season when he’s healthy again. His loss of waiver-exempt status in 2026-27 means he should be penciled into next season’s opening night roster. Washington likely doesn’t want to have him go too long without NHL action if that’s the case.