According to the early season projections, the Chicago Blackhawks made a big move, sending forward Marko Dano down to the AHL on Friday afternoon. Dano, acquired in the deal that saw Brandon Saad move to Columbus, was thought to be having a very good preseason. Unfortunately, his $925,000 cap hit may have been part of the consideration about why he isn't staying up, as they are in a serious cap crunch again this year (and for years to come). There is a fine chance that he'll return at some point in the season, but uncertainty will hurt his draft value.The Blackhawks were not done there either, as they also placed Bryan Bickell on waivers on Friday, trying to offload his $4 million cap hit, one way or another. If Bickell was to be picked up on waivers, that NHL team would have to assume his entire hit, but if he was to clear, the Blackhawks could send him down to the minors at minimal cap relief, thanks to a clause in the CBA, where teams can't bury entire cap hits or they keep him up with the team and demote someone else. There are rumblings that Bickell may warrant a stop on the Long Term Injured Reserve, but that seems unlikely, given they tried to waive him.Nevertheless, Bickell's days appear to be done in Chicago, so adjust your projections for him accordingly.
The New York Rangers moved a little bit closer to their opening night roster, as they placed Raphael Diaz on waivers on Friday, likely for the purposes of sending him down to the AHL. Diaz was having a decent camp, but it looks like the team is moving with Dylan McIlrath as their seventh defender out of camp, which is good news for him, as he has been in the organization for a few years now.The Rangers still have one more cut that they need to make before the end of camp, so they're pretty darn close to finishing up and prepping for the start of the season.
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Friday afternoon, the Boston Bruins made a few more cuts, as Alex Khokhlachev was one of the key cuts, as he really hasn't shone through training camp or the preseason, not long after publicly coming out saying that he needed a better chance at it. There was some hope that Khokhlachev would make it through, adding to the rookie race this year, but that just wasn't to be the case.
It's been done a few times already this preseason, a team recalls some players already sent down from camp, but a couple players I have been keeping an eye on, makes their return on Friday for a preseason game. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Sonny Milano, a pair of Columbus rookies, return for a game tonight against the Buffalo Sabres. I am not really optimistic that they'll stay up with the team, rather they'll get one more look to fill out the roster tonight and then be sent back down tomorrow morning. I guess we'll see, now won't we?
Joe Colborne, who is returning from wrist surgery in the off-season, suffered another wrist injury, although not re-injuring his repaired wrist, suffering a new injury to his other wrist. Colborne left the game against the Jets after taking an Andrew Ladd shot to the his right wrist and he was not to return to the game. There was no early indication, as to the extent of the injury quite yet, but he was going to be a main fixture in the Flames offense, assuming that he remains healthy.
It sounds like Winnipeg Jets captain Andrew Ladd was lifted from the game against Calgary on Thursday night with an undisclosed injury, but comments after the game say that the coaching staff pulled him for precautionary reasons. With a week before the regular season opens for the Jets, there's no need to play too much at the moment. Unless the Jets go down to their official 23-man roster before the start of the season, I would imagine that Ladd won't see much more preseason action and he'll be on the list as out day-to-day.
There is also some concern on the blueline for the Detroit Red Wings, as both Dan DeKeyser and Kyle Quincey are hurting at the moment. DeKeyser is waiting on some MRI results on his leg, while Quincey is dealing with a lower-body injury of his own, both are currently listed as day-to-day and DeKeyser is the one to watch for, as his update should be coming up soon and could very well go either way.
In a post-game presser, the Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper updated the injury status of Nikita Kucherov, who left Thursday night's game against the Dallas Stars with a lower-body injury. The coach suggested that the injury is minor and he doesn't have much concern that he will miss opening night. Kucherov may be held out of the rest of preseason action, but I wouldn't be too concerned, especially if I have him targeted as a top end draft pick this weekend.
The Ottawa Senators and a lineup that closely resembled what we should see on opening night, went into Montreal and handed the Canadiens a pretty good thumping on Thursday night, 5-2.
The Buffalo Sabres didn't exactly dress all of their shiny new toys, when the team took to the ice in Minnesota to take on the Wild and that B group took a 6-1 kicking at the hands of their hosts.
The St. Louis Blues are getting healthier as camp rolls on and they celebrated the return of forward Jori Lehtera with a 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at home on Thursday night.
Well, surprise, surprise! In a game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers, would you have believed me when I said it was going to be the Canucks' youth that did the trick against an upstart Oilers team? Vancouver took their last road preseason game, 5-2, on Thursday night and it was a great combination of their prospect pool that did the deed.
Finally, in Anaheim, the Ducks played host to the Avalanche and were playing terrible hosts, as they didn't allow their guests to light the lamp at all in a 3-0 victory.
The Washington Capitals, much like the Detroit Red Wings from earlier this morning, are not expecting to have one of their top centres back for opening night or an extended period of time thereafter. Nicklas Backstrom, who underwent off-season hip surgery, will miss the first four games of the regular season and it's said that there is potential for him to miss upwards of October, entirely.
The New Jersey Devils lost the services of forward Kyle Palmieri last night against the Philadelphia Flyers, but as of Thursday morning, it was still unclear, as to what injury he had actually suffered. He was taken out along the boards and slow to get up, but he did manage to skate off on his own, so the suggestion may be more upper-body than anything. The team has said that it is just a minor tweak and they don't consider the injury serious, so that's good news.
Forward Oskar Sundqvist and goaltender Matt Murray were two Pittsburgh Penguins rookies, who were among four cuts late on Wednesday night. Both players did have some sort of projection in the pool magazines, leading up to the draft, as Sundqvist was good for 22 points from the Sports Forecaster, while Murray was good for 4 wins from the same magazine.
It was a back and forth affair through two periods between the Capitals and the Hurricanes, as they headed to the 3rd, tied at 3-3, but that was all the scoring they saw until the shootout. There, the home team took the skills competition and the Hurricanes were 4-3 winners in the end.
The New Jersey Devils were not intimidated by the trip to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, nor were they dismayed by the 2-1 deficit they faced after the 1st period, as they came back to score three unanswered goals and take a 4-2 victory on the road on Wednesday night.