Wild thump the Blackhawks in Stadium Series, Leafs trade Shawn Matthias to the Avalanche, injury update & more in your NHL morning coffee headlines.
The Wild celebrated the first outdoor game in franchise history with a 6-1 victory over the Blackhawks. The Ducks cruised to their fifth straight win, and more in your NHL Hat Trick.
Notable NHL Headlines.
The Wild thumped the Blackhawks 6-1 in front of over 50,000 fans at TCF Bank Stadium.
TRIBLIVE.COM: Kris Letang’s three assists helped the Pittsburgh Penguins edge the Buffalo Sabres 4-3.
THE WASHINGTON POST: Despite having the NHL’s top power play this season, the Washington Capitals have struggled of late with the man advantage.
TORONTO STAR: The Maple Leafs shipped forward Shawn Matthias to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a fourth-round pick and minor-league winger Colin Smith.
TSN.CA: This morning, the Leafs shipped defenceman Roman Polak and forward Nick Spaling to the San Jose Sharks for two second-round draft picks and forward Raffi Torres.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The purge of pending UFAs by the Leafs before the Feb. 29 trade deadline has begun. Matthias provides forward depth for an Avalanche team battling for a playoff berth in the Western Conference. Polak and Spaling do the same for the Sharks. The rebuilding Leafs add to their stockpile of picks(12) in this year’s draft, add two more for future drafts and bring in depth on the wing for their AHL club.
NHL Injury Report.
THE BUFFALO NEWS: Sabres center Ryan O’Reilly will be sidelined 3-4 weeks with a broken foot.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh didn’t suffer a concussion or a broken jaw after he was elbowed in the head by Toronto Maple Leafs winger Leo Komarov last week.
STLTODAY.COM: On the same day goaltender Jake Allen came off injured reserve, the Blues placed forward Alex Steen (upper-body injury) on IR. He’s expected to miss a month.
TAMPA BAY TIMES: Lighting winger Nikita Kucherov is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
PHILLY.COM: While Flyers forwards Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier could return to action on Tuesday, defenseman Michael Del Zotto will undergo season-ending wrist surgery on Friday.
OTTAWA SUN: Sidelined since Oct. 14 by a concussion, Senators forward Clarke MacArthur still hasn’t received medical clearance to return to action.
Sadly, it looks like MacArthur’s career may be over.
Agreed I always liked him.
It bothered me a lot when the Leafs let MacArthur go. I hope he makes a full recovery and stays involved with the game – a good pro.
I had heard MacArthur was getting close to returning & making good progress. Your closer to the situation George is it being reported there that he’s hit a wall or symptoms are returning?
Lyle, the 2 second round picks that Toronto got in the SJ trade are for 2017 and 2018, so if my count is right we are still at 12 for this year, not 14.
Fixed, thanks.
Biggest part of this deal is setting up for the rest. Leafs now have nearly 10 mill in space to sweeten deals by bringing in bad contracts.
Agreed. I’m quite looking forward to this year’s trade deadline, and they’re making smart trades with a very stubborn purpose: build through the draft, maintain flexibility in spending, and being patient. They are further enhancing their likelihood of getting the top pick this year, and what is not as obvious but also instrumental is developing a winning culture with the Marlies. Creating a good system with winning results is a good building block for whenever they make their way to the Leafs.
As I have been preaching & also weighed in by Ferraro on his twitter today, most players don’t make it to the NHL until 4 years after being drafted.
That’s sound development. Don’t rush them. Maximize their Jr eligibility, season them in the minors for a year maybe even 2 & then slowly expose them to the NHL in the right culture properly supported.
That is exactly what Toronto is now doing. No 1 will be rushed. This model also plays well to cap issues as many players are coming out of their ELC’s having not had much time to show anything & subsequently not getting huge raises to early.
The Monahan’s, McKinnon’s, Ekblad’s, McDavid’s etc of the world are in a very small minoriy. The vast majority follow the Domi, Strome, path’s to the NHL.
Shticky as your hoping & pining for. Nylander coming in as the #2 C in Toronto next season your going to be very disappointed. It’s not happening. He make make the roster as a bottom 6 forward possibly even on the wing to start.
Toronto plans to be bad for several more seasons. They have added 2 more depth players to next seasons roster in Michalek & greening & more will be coming or signed in the off season to keep the majority of the few stud prospects Toronto currently has down.
Even though I am a Shark fan, I am excited to see what the Maple Leafs are building toward. i hope they have a good minor system to support their plans, and that they draft well in the next few years. I also hope the the Polak deal settles down the defensive situation in San Jose, although they still need a bonafide back up goalie for sure. I just wish at some point they would have the insight to put Burns back up as a forward and let true defensemen play defense. He just gets caught up ice too many times and is one time a plus/minus stat really is an indicator of something being wrong.