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Central Notes: Zuccarello, Parise, Byfuglien, Rantanen, Landeskog

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The Dallas Stars continue to hang onto the top wildcard playoff spot and continue to attempt to fend off several teams trying to steal away their spot. The Stars may get a much-needed boost soon as veteran Mats Zuccarello, who appeared in just one game with Dallas after they acquired him from the New York Rangers at the trade deadline, is making progress and could return to the team soon.

Zuccarello, who scored a goal an assist in his first game in Dallas before breaking his arm while blocking a shot on Feb. 24, participated in Dallas pre-game, optional skate, according to NHL.com’s Mark Stepneski. His four-week recovery estimate is almost up and the team hopes that he could be ready soon.

“It increases every day,” Zuccarello said of the stickhandling. “Maybe a week, just started light and now I can shoot a little bit more, but it still hurts a little bit.”

The 31-year-old Zuccarello has 12 goals and 39 points so far this year, but the Stars need his experience on their struggling second line, especially if they want to remain in the playoff position they are currently in.

  • The Minnesota Wild announced that the team will be without forward Zach Parise Saturday, who suffered an undisclosed injury Friday after colliding with Washington Capitals’ forward Tom Wilson. Parise, however, remained in the game and assisted on the team’s game-winning goal. The 34-year-old Parise is having a big season with 26 goals and 59 points in 73 games and has only missed two games this year up until now. It’s Parise’s biggest season since 2014-15. The team will replace Parise in the lineup with Pontus Aberg.
  •  The Winnipeg Jets are close to getting back a pair of key defensemen as both Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey each skated prior to the team’s morning skate Saturday, suggesting they could return soon, according to Mitchell Clinton of NHL.com. Byfuglien, who has been out since Feb. 14 with a lower-body injury, while Morrissey has been out since Feb. 24 with an upper-body injury. Head coach Paul Maurice said that Byfuglien has actually been skating on his own since Wednesday. “The way this works now is he skates, if he feels good the next day, he’ll start thinking about morning skates going forward,” said Maurice. “Then start building toward contact.”
  • The Denver Post’s Mike Chambers reports that the team will be without star forward Mikko Rantanen again on Sunday at Chicago after missing his first game of the season against the Blackhawks at home on Saturday with a midsection injury. The 22-year-old was hurt in Thursday’s game against Dallas when he was checked into the boards along the team benches. He remains day-to-day.
  • One a more positive note, BSN’s Adrian Dater reports there’s a chance, albeit a small chance, that injured forward Gabriel Landeskog, who was listed as being out four to six weeks with an upper-body injury back on Mar. 8, could return a bit early. That would be welcome news for a Colorado team that looked to be sliding out of the playoffs, but have had a recent resurgence that has brought them back into the playoff race. Landeskog is having a breakout year with 33 goals and 69 points.

Atlantic Notes: Dermott, Gardiner, Smith, Tolvanen

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The Toronto Maple Leafs got some good news on the injury front. While Travis Dermott skated in a non-contact jersey Friday and again today Saturday, head coach Mike Babcock said the team hopes that Dermott will be back in the lineup next week, according to the Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby. That should be welcome news for Toronto, which has lost four of their last six games with both Dermott and Jake Gardiner out of the lineup.

Dermott, who has been out for almost four weeks now with a shoulder injury, has emerged as a solid defensive option for Toronto this year and has been much missed. The 22-year-old blueliner has four goals and 17 points in 60 games this season.

The news on Gardiner wasn’t as promising. Gardiner did make an appearance at practice, but did not skate and Babcock still has no timetable on when he might be ready to return. He’s been out with a back injury since Feb. 25.

  • The Ottawa Senators Zack Smith is not playing Saturday due to a back injury and will remain day-to-day, according to Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. After a tough season a year ago when he posted just five goals and 19 points and was put on waivers at the start of the season, Smith has rebounded this year with 18 goals and 27 points. It still remains far short of his 25-goals season back in 2015-16, which propelled the Senators to sign him a year later to a four-year, $13MM deal, in which the Senators are stuck with his $3.25AAV for another two years.
  • The Syracuse Crunch, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s AHL affiliate, announced that it has signed goaltender Atte Tolvanen, the brother of Nashville Predators’ star prospect Eeli Tolvanen, to an AHL contract for the remainder of the 2018-19 season. The 24-year-old goalie just finished a four-year stint at Northern Michigan University, putting up a solid .917 save percentage in his senior year along with a 2.35 GAA in 39 appearanes. In four years for Northern Michigan, he’s appeared in 137 games, with a 2.41 GAA and a .918 save percentage. He will likely serve as the backup to Eddie Pasquale, the Crunch’s starting goalie, while prospect Connor Ingram has been returned to the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL, continuing his strange demotion there.

 

Roberto Luongo To Decide On Playing Future After The Season

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Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo has not yet made a decision on his plans beyond this season, notes George Richards of The Athletic (subscription required).  He plans to sit down with the team at the end of the year to discuss his future.  The veteran has battled through another injury-plagued season while posting the lowest save percentage of his career and has played in just 38 games as a result.

Luongo, in the past, has indicated that he plans to play out the entirety of his contract which runs for three more years after this one.  However, the soon-to-be 40-year-old is set to earn a total of $3.618MM over the remainder of his deal which is significantly lower than the $5.33MM AAV of the deal.

Many expect Florida to be aggressive in free agency this summer and it has been expected for a while that they will take a run at Blue Jackets netminder Sergei Bobrovsky.  If they were to bring him in, they wouldn’t be able to afford Luongo’s cap hit as their backup, nor would they likely keep James Reimer ($3.4MM per year through 2020-21) around as well.  Instead, youngster Samuel Montembeault, who is expected to get the bulk of the playing time down the stretch, could wind up as a regular on the roster next season.

Further complicating the decision for Luongo and the Panthers is the potential for salary cap recapture as they, along with Vancouver, would be on the hook for some.  This was put in place to penalize long-term contracts that were heavily frontloaded and tacked on cheap years at the end for the purposes of artificially lowering the AAV.  James Mirtle of The Athletic (Twitter link) broke down the approximate numbers several years ago and if Luongo was to retire following this season, Florida would be on the hook for a cap hit of $1.287MM for three years while the Canucks would carry a $2.84MM penalty for that same time.

Because of Luongo’s growing injury history, it’s also possible that the Panthers will make a case that he should just be placed on LTIR which would allow them to exceed the Upper Limit for next season without incurring any recapture penalties.  We’ve seen several players with similar contracts land on LTIR in recent seasons.  However, since Luongo has been able to play in 38 games (and counting) this season, it’s not a guarantee that they will be able to make the case that he won’t be able to play anymore.

Luongo had stated previously that he was hoping to be the starter in Florida as long as possible and play out the remainder of his contract.  That doesn’t appear to be in the cards anymore.  Instead, the question becomes what role, if any, will he have with the Panthers for 2019-20?

Snapshots: Kovalchuk, Red Wings, Fast

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It has not been a great return to the NHL for Kings winger Ilya Kovalchuk.  While he got off to a good start, his playing time has steadily decreased as of late to the point where he has spent some time as a healthy scratch (and is expected to sit again tonight).  In an interview with Curtis Zupke of the Los Angeles Times, he commented on his frustration with his situation, even suggesting that he hasn’t been given a fair chance under interim coach Willie Desjardins.

Despite the difficulties he has had this season, Kovalchuk was quick to point out that he likes it in Los Angeles and that his family has settled in nicely, implying he has no intention of asking for a trade.  To be fair, even if he wanted to be moved, the Kings would likely have some challenges doing so considering he has just 31 points on the season and two years at $6.25MM left on his deal.  Instead, it appears the hope will have to be that the 35-year-old will be able to rebound next season, potentially with a new coach behind the bench.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Detroit’s challenges with fielding a complete back end continue. Dana Wakiji of the Red Wings’ team site notes that Jonathan Ericsson has been ruled out of tonight’s game which will be his fifth straight game missed due to a lower-body injury while Trevor Daley has essentially been ruled out for the year.  Meanwhile, Libor Sulak, who was recently recalled under emergency conditions, is sick and isn’t expected to suit up against Vegas either.  There could be some good news on the horizon up front though as winger Evgeny Svechnikov, who has missed the entire season with a torn ACL, is skating with the team and is hoping to return where he’d likely suit up with their AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids.
  • The Rangers are leaning towards shutting winger Jesper Fast down for the remainder of the season, reports Larry Brooks of the New York Post. He has been playing through a shoulder issue for the past three months before the team gave him a night off earlier this week against Detroit.  With New York squarely out of the postseason picture, it wouldn’t make sense for them to keep running him out there when he’s not fully healthy.  The 27-year-old is already signed for next season with a $1.85MM cap hit.

Capitals Prospect Chase Priskie Unsure About Signing Or Testing Free Agency

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Capitals defensive prospect Chase Priskie is having a very strong senior season with Quinnipiac.  He averaged over a point per game for the first time in his NCAA career and was recently named as one of the ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award.  While Washington would undoubtedly like to sign him, the 23-year-old indicated to NBC Sports’ Washington’s J.J. Regan that he hasn’t given much thought as to whether or not to sign with them or wait a few months and become an unrestricted free agent in mid-August.

The Caps tried to lure him away from college a year ago and while it briefly looked like Priskie was set to sign, he opted to remain with the Bobcats for his final season.  While he certainly fared quite well, it also presents a bit of uneasiness with the potential for him to hit the open market.

What also is a potential challenge for Washington is their contract situation.  As things currently stand, they are at the maximum of 50 contracts which would take away the option of offering him a deal that starts this season, a practice that has become much more common in recent years.  If all they can offer is the same deal that every other team can offer in August, why not wait it out?

It’s important to note that while the trade deadline has passed, trades can technically still be made.  The players involved just aren’t NHL-eligible for the rest of the season.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see GM Brian MacLellan try to move out someone in the minors for an unsigned asset to free up a contract slot to give them the opportunity to offer him a deal where he’d burn the first year this season.  However, knowing that the Capitals are in a tough spot, there’s a chance that they may have to part with another small asset as a sweetener to entice a team to get them out of that spot.  In essence, the Capitals may have to give something up to sign their own player, a situation that doesn’t present itself very often.

Alternatively, they can wait and offer Priskie an entry-level deal in 2019-20 and hope that doing so will be enough to entice him to pass up a shot at free agency.  With Quinnipiac set to take part in the NCAA tournament that kicks off late next week, he’s at least a little while away from making his decision but this situation will be one to monitor.

Blake Pietila, Daniel Walcott Clear Waivers

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Saturday: Pietila has cleared waivers, reports NHL.com’s Mike Morreale (Twitter link).  He will remain with the Devils, at least for the time being.  Meanwhile, Walcott is listed as being assigned to Syracuse (AHL) per the AHL’s Transactions Page which means he has also passed through unclaimed.

Friday: You don’t often see waivers at this time of the year, but today two players have been designated. According to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports, Blake Pietila of the New Jersey Devils and Daniel Walcott of the Tampa Bay Lightning have both been placed on waivers. Walcott has not played at all this season as he dealt with a major shoulder injury, while Pietila could now join the Binghamton Devils.

It’s actually great news for Walcott, who is likely healthy enough to contribute for the Syracuse Crunch. The 25-year old defenseman has played the last three seasons with the team and will be joining them as they battle for first place in the entire AHL. He has spent the entire year so far on season-opening injured reserve, and would have required waivers to go down at any time.

For Pietila though this comes after 19 mostly uneventful games with the Devils. The 26-year old forward has just a single point with the team this year and now just four total through his 38-game NHL career. Despite scoring at the college and AHL level, Pietila doesn’t seem to have what it takes to produce in the NHL. He will however help Binghamton if sent there, though they are well out of the playoff race this season.

Minor Transactions: 3/23/19

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With the playoff races in full swing and 28 of 31 teams in action, the antepenultimate Saturday of the season figures to be a busy one.  There’s likely to be a lot of roster movement throughout the day and we’ll keep tabs on those moves here.

  • The Stars announced the recall of center Justin Dowling from Texas of the AHL. Unlikely many moves at this time of the season, this one is not an emergency recall which means it counts against Dallas’ four non-emergency post-deadline recalls.  The 28-year-old, who inked a two-year extension earlier this month, has spent most of the season with AHL Texas where he has 53 points in 62 games to lead their farm team in scoring.  He has suited up in six games with Dallas so far this season, recording a single assist.  He’ll serve as depth down the middle for their stretch run.
  • Ottawa has returned defenseman Erik Brannstrom to AHL Belleville, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link).  He was up with the team on emergency recall.  The 19-year-old has played in two games with the Senators since being acquired from Vegas and will likely get another shot with the big club in the coming weeks.
  • The San Jose Sharks announced that they have sent forward Dylan Gambrell and defenseman Nick DeSimone have both been reassigned to the San Jose Barracuda after being recalled just one day ago. Gambrell, in particular, has been sent back and forth quite a bit this season, but the 22-year-old hasn’t made an appearance with the Sharks since Feb. 16.
  • The New Jersey Devils announced they have sent a number of players to their AHL affiliate in Binghamton after their win today over Arizona, including forwards Joey Anderson, Blake Pietila, John Quenneville, Eric Tangradi and defenseman Josh Jacobs. All players will be expected to gain seasoning in the AHL and have found themselves going back and forth quite a bit recently.
  • The Washington Capitals announced they have recalled Tyler Lewington from the Hershey Bears of the AHL to fill its hole on defense. With only six players on the roster and almost no cap space remaining to work with, the team could have made a number of moves to bring up a defenseman, but Lewington had the cheapest contract of their AHL defenseman and is likely to be used as an emergency player, likely not seeing any time for the Capitals. The 24-year-old has three goals, 14 points and 113 penalty minutes in 57 games this season in Hershey.

Sean Kuraly To Miss One Month After Undergoing Hand Surgery

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The Bruins will be without center Sean Kuraly for the next month after the team announced he has undergone successful surgery to repair a fracture in his right hand.  The expected timeline for recovery is one month.  Taking his place on the roster will be center Karson Kuhlman, who has been recalled from AHL Providence on an emergency basis (meaning it will not count against Boston’s four post-deadline recalls).

Kuraly was in the midst of a career year before suffering the injury back on Thursday against New Jersey.  He has played in 71 games this season, setting career highs in goals (8), assists (13), points (21), and faceoff percentage (53.8%) while logging more than 13 minutes a night, also a new personal best.  As a result of the surgery, he’s certainly out for the rest of the regular season while his availability for the first round of the postseason is very much in jeopardy as well.

As for Kuhlman, he’s in his first professional season after signing as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth.  He has spent the majority of 2018-19 at the minor league level where he has 12 goals and 18 assists in 58 games.  He also has five games with Boston where he picked up a goal and an assist.  With Kuraly set to miss the next month, Kuhlman will have the opportunity to build on those numbers down the stretch.

Bruins Sign Zdeno Chara To A One-Year Extension

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Zdeno Chara will be sticking around with the Bruins for a little while longer.  The team announced that they have inked their captain to a one-year contract extension.  The deal will carry a base salary of $2MM with the opportunity to earn another $1.75MM in performance bonuses.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Chara will receive $1.25MM for playing in ten games, $250K if Boston makes the playoffs, and $250K if they win the Stanley Cup in 2020.

The 42-year-old is currently in his 21st NHL season (the 11th with Boston) and while he is no longer the high-end top pairing anchor he once was, he has still proven himself to be a valuable member of their back end.  This season, Chara has played in 55 games, collecting just 11 points but is still averaging nearly 21 minutes a night, third-most among Bruins rearguards.

In his career, Chara has played in 1,478 games between the Islanders, Senators, and Bruins which ranks fourth among all active players.  His next goal will be the 200th of his career and will make him just the 22nd defenseman all-time to reach that plateau.

The deal actually represents a sizable pay cut from his current contract which carries a $5MM base salary with the same bonus structure as this new pact.  While his offense has tailed off, this type of contract is certainly fair value for a mid-tier defender which is probably the best role for Chara at this stage of his career.

With the contract, the Bruins now have five of their top seven defenders locked up for next season with a total cap hit of $13.9MM guaranteed (not including the likely $1.25MM for Chara playing in ten games or Dennis Seidenberg’s buyout cost of $1.167MM).  That amount will go up considerably this summer with youngsters Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo slated to be restricted free agents.  Even so, Boston should be able to bring back their entire defense corps for next season, one that has been quite effective as their 186 goals allowed is the third fewest in the NHL.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Battle of the NHL Playoffs on ESPN+

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