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Pittsburgh Penguins Acquire Michael Leighton From Arizona Coyotes

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The Pittsburgh Penguins made a deal ahead of the trade freeze, acquiring Michael Leighton and a 2019 fourth-round pick (originally Minnesota’s) from the Arizona Coyotes. They’ll send back Josh Archibald, Sean Maguire and a 2019 sixth-round pick. Leighton will join his third organization of the season, after already being dealt from Tampa Bay to Arizona earlier this year.

While Leighton has a long history in professional hockey, he hasn’t played well during his tumultuous season so far and is an interesting move for a club that had reportedly been after goaltending depth. The fact that Maguire—younger and performing better in his split ECHL/AHL season—is going the other way means it’s not a clear upgrade in terms of raw talent in net.

Archibald, who may be the only player in the deal to spend any more time in the NHL this season, is a 25-year old undersized forward without a ton of upside. Though he was an excellent college player, Archibald hasn’t been able to find much success at the professional level.

For Pittsburgh, the upside to this deal isn’t readily apparent. While they do drop a contract of their roster limit, they already had quite a few spots free. Moving up a couple of rounds in the draft and gaining some minor league experience in net is at least worth something, but Archibald is a useful extra player and Maguire clearly has more upside than Leighton at this point in their respective careers.

We’ll have to wait and see what Pittsburgh has in store, which could potentially include another goaltender move or something that needed Archibald’s active roster spot. The young forward isn’t waiver-exempt any longer, meaning Pittsburgh could have lost him if they tried to send him to the minor leagues.

Patric Hornqvist Sent Back To Pittsburgh With Upper-Body Injury

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The Pittsburgh Penguins had a noticeable absence from their morning skate today when Patric Hornqvist was missing, and Josh Yohe of The Athletic reported that there was no locker for the winger in the dressing room.

Yohe reports that the team has sent Hornqvist back to Pittsburgh with an upper-body injury, another blow to a team that has struggled to find their footing this season. The Penguins now sit in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, and are only two points ahead of both the Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes despite having played two more games than each team. The premise of finding themselves at the bottom of the division isn’t a familiar one to the team, and losing Hornqvist just makes it even tougher.

The 31-year old winger has 21 points this year, and is tied for the team lead with six powerplay goals. Though he’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, he’s an important part of the Penguins offensive group and isn’t expected to be moved unless the team falls out of the race entirely.

Dominik Simon was also missing from the skate due to illness.

Minor Transactions: 12/15/17

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With just a few days remaining before the holiday roster freeze hits in the NHL—teams will be unable to trade from December 19-27th—rumors are starting to heat up around the league. Petr Mrazek, Jori Lehtera and others have been reported available in their respective cities, meaning we could see some movement before Christmas. For the minor transactions, keep an eye right here as we update through the day.

  • The Arizona Coyotes announced the recall of winger Nick Merkley of Tucson of the AHL.  The 2015 first rounder has gotten off to a strong start in his first professional season, tallying 12 goals and 12 assists through 20 games which places him second on the Roadrunners in scoring.  This is his first stint in the NHL.

Earlier updates:

  • The New Jersey Devils completed a minor trade last night, sending forward Ryan Kujawinski to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for forward Michael Latta. Latta has 113 NHL contests under his belt, but was stuck in the minor leagues all last season. Kujawinski on the other hand has yet to make his NHL debut, and has played just five games this season after starting the year on injured reserve. Both players will report to their respective minor league clubs.
  • The St. Louis Blues have recalled Samuel Blais from the AHL, bringing him back after just a couple of days in the minor leagues. Blais has nine games under his belt in the NHL this season, scoring three points and showing that there may be a full-time role for him sometime down the road. In 12 AHL contests, including a 4-2 win last night in San Antonio, Blais has six goals and 14 points. The team also assigned Jordan Binnington to the AHL, while activating Carter Hutton from injured reserve. Jay Bouwmeester has taken his place on the IR.

Poll: Which Team Will Be First To Sell?

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On Tuesday, the NHL will enter its holiday roster freeze. For all players on the active roster, they’ll be given a week’s reprieve from trade speculation, or reassignment anxiety. No one will be traded, waived or loaned between the 19th and 27th of December.

But after the rosters thaw and the holiday season starts to drift into the past, which NHL team will be first to pick up the phone and decide enough is enough? Which general manager will send out messages explaining he’s open for business and start selling off assets to the highest bidder?

The Arizona Coyotes are currently in last place, even after several offseason moves designed to make them more competitive this year. Will they decide that the Derek Stepan experiment was a mistake, or even take a shot at a big return by moving Oliver Ekman-Larsson?

What about the Buffalo Sabres, currently in 30th and with a league-low 68 goals for? Will Evander Kane be celebrating New Year’s Eve in another district? Jack Eichel is surely safe, but the rest of the roster should be looking over their shoulders come 2018.

The Oilers and Senators both believed they could compete for the Stanley Cup this season, but nothing has seemed to go right. With high-end players still on the roster, do they decide to sell off for a season and try to bounce-back next October?

Who will be the first to start selling this season? Cast your vote below, and make sure to explain who you think will move first. We’ve included the bottom 10 teams in the standings, but make sure to comment with whoever you think should have been included.

[Mobile users click here to vote!]

Western Notes: Realignment, Ellis, Baertschi, Parise, Spurgeon

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In a long notebook with many takes, The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek (subscription required) points out that assuming that Seattle does acquire an expansion team that starts in the 2020-21 season, realignment will have to happen as it’s highly unlikely Seattle will end up in the Central Division, which is the division that’s short one team.

Duhatschek suggests the smartest way to fix the divisional problem when/if Seattle gives the NHL a 32nd team, would be to move the Colorado Avalanche to the Pacific Divison and then move both the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers to the Central Division. Geographically, that would make the most sense, although neither Edmonton or Calgary would make a great fit in the Central. One other possibility would be that by 2020-21, the Arizona Coyotes may have decided to move away and relocate. That could also fix the problem, but only time will tell.

  • Adam Vingan of the Tennessean writes that Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis has been practicing with the team and could return within the next couple of weeks. The 26-year-old stud defenseman has been out after knee surgery this summer. Vingan also writes that despite their solid defense, it’s likely the team will have to make a move with Matt Irwin and Anthony Bitetto the most likely candidates to be sent to the Milwaukee Admirals. Since the return of Yannick Weber a week ago, Irwin has been scratched twice, while Bitetto once.
  • Patrick Johnston of The Province writes that Vancouver Canucks winger Sven Baertschi, who took a puck to the face during last night’s game against the Calgary Flames, will return home to Vancouver rather than continue with the team on their current roadtrip. While there are no details on the severity of the injury, Johnston said the angle of the shot and its velocity would suggest the injury could be significant as he has already been ruled out for the team’s game against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. The 25-year-old has struggled lately on offense, but is still third on the team with eight goals this year.
  • Sarah McLellan of the Star Tribune tweets that veteran Zach Parise and defenseman Jared Spurgeon are skating and may just be a couple of weeks away from returning to the team. Parise, who underwent back surgery in October, hasn’t played all year. He scored 19 goals and had 42 points last year for the Wild and was counted on to be a key contributor. Spurgeon has been out since Dec. 1 with a groin strain. He has three goals and 12 assists in 23 games this season.
  • The Arizona Coyotes will play in their 21st road game of the season tonight when they face the Chicago Blackhawks tonight. The Coyotes will be the first team in NHL history to play 21 road games within the first 66 days of the season, according to NHL.com’s Dave Vest.
  • Mike Chambers of the Denver Post tweets that defenseman Erik Johnson is fine after blocking a shot late in Saturday’s game against the Florida Panthers. He is expected to play Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Coyotes Loan Marek Langhamer To HC Kometa Brno

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As usual, Saturday is set to be a busy one with 24 teams in action which means there should be a fair bit of roster juggling throughout the day.  We’ll keep tabs on those moves here.

  • The Coyotes have loaned goaltender Marek Langhamer to HC Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga, reports Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports (Twitter link). This alleviates a logjam between the pipes at the AHL level with Adin Hill and Hunter Miska already with their AHL affiliate in Tucson plus veteran Michael Leighton who is on loan to Vegas’ farm team in Chicago.  Arizona will retain Langhamer’s rights while he is on loan.
  • Pittsburgh has flipped depth defensemen, announcing that they have assigned Frank Corrado to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL while recalling blueliner Kevin Czuczman. Corrado had only been recalled on Thursday and didn’t see any action since then.  As for Czuczman, he leads the Baby Penguins in points by a defender with 14 through 22 games.  He last saw NHL action back in 2013-14 with the Islanders, who had signed and played him immediately after his collegiate season ended.
  • Sonny Milano’s back-and-forth season continues.  The Blue Jackets announced that they have recalled the winger from Cleveland of the AHL.  He has spent the bulk of the season with Columbus, tallying ten points in 24 games while adding a pair of assists in two minor league contests.

Coyotes Flip NHL, AHL Goalie Coaches

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While Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds has been mentioned in trade speculation lately, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman cautioned on a radio appearance on Sportsnet 960 (audio link) that it’s unlikely at this point that he will be dealt.  For starters, he has been playing through an injury which certainly doesn’t help his value.  Friedman also notes that some teams believe that Philadelphia will do everything they can to avoid trading him which would make a move like that more of a last resort.

Simmonds is signed through next season at a very club-friendly $3.975MM cap hit (with a 12-team no-trade clause).  He’s bound to get a major raise on the open market and with the Flyers having Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek on significant deals up front long-term, there’s no guarantee that the team will be able to afford to keep him around on a big-ticket contract as well which presents Philly with a case to move him before then.  Despite not being fully healthy, Simmonds is still off to a good start to his season with 18 points (10-8-18) through 29 games.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Devils winger Kyle Palmieri has resumed skating in recent days as he continues to recover from a broken foot, notes Andrew Gross of The Record. The injury was sustained on November 20th with a recovery timeline of four-to-six weeks so it appears he’ll have a chance to return to the lineup near the shorter end of that span.  When he has been healthy this season, Palmieri has been quite effective, notching five goals and four assists in 13 games.
  • The Coyotes have flipped goaltending coaches between their NHL and AHL affiliates, reports Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports. Jon Elkin, who has been Arizona’s goalie coach since being hired in the summer of 2015, will now oversee their minor league netminders while Corey Schwab, a veteran of 147 career NHL appearances, takes over on the NHL side.

Joel Hanley Clears Waivers

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Wednesday: As expected, Mazanec has cleared waivers and signed with the Rangers. He was immediately assigned to the AHL, along with Alexandar Georgiev who’d been up while Henrik Lundqvist dealt with the flu. Mazanec is likely on a minimum salary two-way contract, meaning he would have $650K cap hit in the NHL.

Tuesday: Marek Mazanec is about to return to North American professional hockey, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that he will sign with the New York Rangers. Mazanec has been placed on waivers today, meaning he’s destined for the AHL once he clears. Mazanec had been under contract with the Nashville Predators this summer, but had his contract terminated to pursue an opportunity in the KHL.

After the Predators added both Matt O’Connor and Anders Lindback, it was expected that the organization would move away from Mazanec. Still though, they issued him a qualifying offer and he filed for salary arbitration, eventually settling on a two-way contract. That deal was terminated when Mazanec found a job with Slovan Bratislava in the KHL, but they’ve now moved on as well. Mazanec struggled for Slovan, posting an .899 save percentage through 23 games this season. The team has KHL veteran Jakub Stepanek to fill the crease for them, who has played better so far this year.

Joel Hanley of the Arizona Coyotes and Matt Moulson of the Buffalo Sabres, on waivers yesterday, have both cleared and can be assigned to their respective AHL teams. The Sabres had been trying to find a taker for Moulson and his $5MM cap hit, but instead will have to bury him in the minor leagues. The team will gain a prorated $1.025MM in salary cap relief from assigning him to the AHL.

Minor Transactions: 12/05/17

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As always, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves around the NHL right here. Make sure to refresh the page throughout the day, or check back on your favorite mobile device.

Arizona Coyotes Sign Pierre-Olivier Joseph To Three-Year Deal

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The Arizona Coyotes gave one young player a chance at the NHL today, and now have inked another prospect to an entry-level contract. Pierre-Olivier Joseph has signed his three-year entry-level deal, less than a year after being the 23rd-overall selection at the 2017 Entry Draft.

Joseph was ranked all over lists heading into the draft last June, without a consensus on where he’d be selected. That was mostly because of his slight frame, as he weighs in at just 161-lbs despite being 6’2″. That didn’t scare off the Coyotes, who recognized his shutdown potential even as he was relied upon for offense just as much as defense on the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL. That offense hasn’t gone away in junior—he has 21 points in 23 games this season—but Joseph’s ceiling will rely on his defensive game at the next level.

He’ll likely need a few years to continue to fill out and gain strength, but there are all the tools there to be a successful NHL defender. With other young blueliners like Jakob Chychrun, Kyle Capobianco, Filip Westerlund and Cam Dineen in the mix, the Coyotes are building themselves quite the pipeline of talent. If they hit on project players like Joseph, they could be in for a lot of success.

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