Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon will miss the remainder of the 2023-24 season, the team announced.
He's set to undergo left hip surgery on Feb. 6, then back surgery approximately four weeks later. Spurgeon is expected to be ready before the start of training camp in September.
The 34-year-old has been limited to 16 games this season due to injuries. He missed the first 13 contests, another seven in December, and now has missed the club's previous seven games.
Spurgeon has recorded five assists this season while averaging 23:20 per contest - the third most on the Wild. He's received down-ballot Norris Trophy votes in five of the past seven seasons for his strong two-way play, finishing as high as 11th in 2018-19.
Spurgeon's absence will continue to force veteran Zach Bogosian into the top-four role he's occupied for much of the season.
The Wild entered Thursday eight points out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference and with a 7% chance of making the postseason, per MoneyPuck.com. However, general manager Bill Guerin said on Tuesday that he isn't ready to wave the white flag on the team's season.
Canucks gameday vs the Coyotes, as they get back to the home half of the schedule, and the guys help set it all up. Plus, the guys deal with lingering questions about the roster heading towards the NHL All-Star break and trade deadline, and who gets credits for getting them to this point, from the President down to the coach.
Patrick Johnston of The Province stops by, fresh off his conversation with Jim Rutherford, and shares what his takeaways were, including the possibility of changing the roster sooner rather than later.
Rob Williams of the Daily Hive makes his weekly appearance as well, and reminds us that a helmet reveal is still in the offing for the Canucks, maybe as soon as this week. Plus, Rob weighs in on the Pettersson contract anxiety, and the possibility of a Rick Tocchet contract extension before the end of the season. All that, plus some CFL and NFL news! Presented by Applewood Auto Group.
Jakob Chychrun had been a fixture in the rumor mill for over a year when the Arizona Coyotes finally traded him to the Ottawa Senators in March.
Now, less than a year later, he's back in it.
Sens general manager Steve Staios has been listening to other clubs' overtures for the defenseman, reports Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch.
Staios is expected to meet with Chychrun's agent, Andy Scott, to see if they can agree on a contract extension. If they can't, talks with the other clubs may escalate, Garrioch adds.
Ottawa gave up a top-five-protected first-round pick in last year's draft, a conditional second-rounder in this year's proceedings, and a 2026 second-round selection to snag Chychrun from the Coyotes. He'd been on the block since at least January 2022, when it was reported they sought an "Eichel-like haul" for the blue-liner.
Chychrun has been productive since joining Ottawa, notching 31 points in 51 games over the last two seasons, including 26 across 39 contests in 2023-24. The rearguard, who turns 26 on March 31, ranks third on the team in average ice time with 22:34. He played parts of seven campaigns with Arizona, who drafted him 16th overall in 2016.
He's under contract through 2024-25 with a $4.6-million cap hit, according to CapFriendly. Ottawa already has around $72 million committed to players for that campaign, including Jake Sanderson's $8.05-million cap hit.
Chychrun has a 10-team no-trade list, a right he gained this season that will carry over until his contract is up.
The Senators seemed to be on the verge of contention, landing Chychrun after acquiring sniper Alex DeBrincat to complement a promising young core in July 2022. But Ottawa finished sixth in the Atlantic Division and missed the playoffs for the sixth straight season last spring.
The Sens have taken an even bigger step backward in 2023-24. They enter Thursday with the fourth-worst points percentage in the NHL and fired head coach D.J. Smith on Dec. 18. Coaching changes often inspire turnarounds, but Ottawa is 4-9-0 with Jacques Martin at the helm this season.
If there was ever a season for the Toronto Maple Leafs to take a back seat at the trade deadline, it's this one.
This team has far too many issues to be considered anything close to a Stanley Cup contender. It's not a couple of deadline moves away.
The Maple Leafs enter Thursday with four straight losses, blowing leads in all of them. They're 25th in the league in regulation wins, and their .595 points percentage would be the worst in a full season under head coach Sheldon Keefe (if he makes it through the season). Toronto posted points percentages of .677, .701, and .688 in each of the last three campaigns.
It hasn't been simply bad luck, either: the Leafs' underlying numbers have regressed. They rank 15th in the NHL in five-on-five expected goals share after finishing seventh, third, and second in the previous three seasons, per Natural Stat Trick.
This isn't to say the Leafs' season has been completely disastrous. By points percentage, they sit third in the Atlantic Division - by a thread - and have a 70.2% chance to make the playoffs, per MoneyPuck. And it's true that anything can happen once you punch your ticket to the postseason - the 2023 Florida Panthers and 2021 Montreal Canadiens are recent examples. But Toronto dealing away another first-round pick or any promising prospects for someone who could wind up playing elsewhere next season would be unwise.
The Leafs have picked in the first round only twice in the past five years: Easton Cowan in 2023 and Rodion Amirov - who unfortunately passed away from a brain tumor - in 2020. The prospect pipeline is thin. They don't own their 2025 first-rounder as part of last year's Jake McCabe trade, and they're without a second-round pick in each of the next three years.
Constantly surrendering first-round picks for players who depart in the offseason - Ryan O'Reilly in 2023 and Nick Foligno in 2021 - isn't a recipe for building a sustained winner, no matter how close Toronto thinks it is to playoff success.
Blue-line woes
Claus Andersen / Getty Images Sport / Getty
The Leafs have issues in their bottom-six forward group, and there are question marks between the pipes: how long can Martin Jones maintain his strong play? Will Ilya Samsonov find his game? But Toronto's biggest weakness is undoubtedly its blue line. Not only is it far from Stanley-Cup caliber, but it's old.
Morgan Rielly (29) is having a strong year, but a career-high 24:26 in ice time against top competition isn't ideal for a player who shines offensively but has never been great defensively. TJ Brodie (33) and Mark Giordano (40) are showing signs of decline. McCabe (30) is miscast carrying a second pair with Simon Benoit (25), who shouldn't be on a second pair at all. Timothy Liljegren (24) has yet to establish himself as more than a third-pairing defenseman.
It's no wonder Keefe said Wednesday he still doesn't know which players he can count on in tough situations while defending a lead, when asked about Brodie's play.
Adding someone like Chris Tanev would definitely help, but he's not a long-term fix as a 34-year-old rental. He's certainly not worth surrendering a first-round pick for considering how the Leafs have played the first half of their season: a deep playoff run seems unlikely.
If general manager Brad Treliving can strike a deal for Noah Hanifin that includes an extension, packaging a first-rounder makes sense. But there will be plenty of suitors for Hanifin, and it's unknown if the Boston native would want to commit to Toronto long term without testing the market.
The Leafs could scour the market for defensemen who only cost mid-to-late-round picks, but that type of player won't move the needle much.
Treliving's best bet is to overhaul the blue line in the offseason. With the salary cap rising and Brodie's $5-million hit coming off the books, there will be money to work with. While no Norris contenders are hitting free agency, plenty of fitting, in-their-prime, top-four defensemen could test the market, like Hanifin, Matt Roy, Gustav Forsling, and others.
Treliving has time
Bruce Bennett / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Leafs fans are understandably impatient as they wait for their team to make a deep playoff run, but from Treliving's perspective, he's got time.
After being hired this past offseason, Treliving will likely be given a leash of at least a few years. That means there isn't ample pressure on him to win it all in his first year on the job. Realistically, it'll be hard for the Leafs to win a Cup while a declining John Tavares is still making $11 million per season.
The team's best chance to make a run will be in 2025-26, after Tavares' cap hit comes off the books. Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner (assuming he re-signs) will still be in their primes. There's a chance Tavares is still productive by then and is willing to take a major hometown discount to stay.
By 2025-26, if Treliving can effectively overhaul the blue line, find a new second-line center so Tavares can move to the wing, and build up the prospect pipeline, Toronto could have its best chance at a deep playoff run.
The Leafs have been buyers every season since 2016-17. There's no harm in accepting this isn't the year, sticking with the roster for the remainder of the season and hoping for the best, and then regrouping in the offseason.
Kyle Dubas insists there's nothing legitimate about the notion that he might trade Jake Guentzel.
The Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations and general manager denied exploring that possibility and clarified recent remarks made by Guentzel's agent that may have inadvertently raised some eyebrows.
"I don't think that Ben Hankinson with his comments a few weeks ago meant for it to kind of develop into the level of noise it's gotten to," Dubas said Wednesday on "The GM Show," a team-produced podcast. "Just in knowing Ben and how much he cares about his clients, and about Jake and my relationship with him, I don't think that was his intention whatsoever.
"I think a lot of people have tried to say that when he said 'it could get ugly,' that was about the contract. I don't think so. I think he was more talking about ... the team and where it's going to go in the next several seasons. So I didn't take it as offensive or as anything other than Ben trying to do right by his client."
Dubas then stated he hasn't talked to other clubs about Guentzel's potential availability.
"We haven't had any conversations with any other teams about Jake, so anything that's out there is pure speculation," the executive said. "That's really as simple as that. We'll continue to go through the season here and I'll continue to evaluate where we're at, and then either at the All-Star break or after the season, we'll do what's best for everybody - best for the Penguins, best for Jake - and we'll determine that together."
Guentzel is a pending unrestricted free agent who will be one of the most coveted players if he does hit the market. His current deal carries a cap hit of $6 million, and the Penguins have about $65 million committed to other players next season, with only Jeff Carter, Alex Nedeljkovic, and other role players left to sign aside from Guentzel, according to CapFriendly.
The 29-year-old forward has 19 goals and 27 assists over 42 games in 2023-24. He's in his eighth campaign with the Pens, who drafted him 77th overall in 2013. The Nebraska-born winger has shown continued chemistry with Sidney Crosby over the years, burying at least 36 goals in three of those seasons, including 40 on two occasions.
The Penguins have an aging core, but a playoff spot is still a realistic goal for a squad that entered Thursday sitting fourth in the Metropolitan Division at 21-15-6.
Dan and Sat debate whether topics such as Canucks scouting, Elias Pettersson contract talk while the Canucks are rolling, and much more are overrated or underrated!
This podcast was produced by Josh Elliott-Wolfe.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
Dan and Sat discuss some of Jim Rutherford's recent comments regarding what the Canucks could do ahead of the deadline. They also get into Teddy Blueger's season and the success he's had, plus Kevin Woodley of InGoal Magazine and NHL.com stops by to talk Canucks defence and all things goaltending.
This podcast was produced by Josh Elliott-Wolfe.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin believes it's premature to begin gauging the trade market for veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
Guerin said Tuesday that the Wild aren't ready to "wave the white flag" on their disappointing season, but he understands Fleury will be a player of interest around the league if Minnesota doesn't surge up the standings soon.
"I think 'Flower' just wants to focus on his team right now and his play," Guerin told The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun. "We'll see how it goes and then we'll have the appropriate conversations.
"It's just too early for that, and I'm not ready, and I'm sure 'Flower' isn't ready, to have that conversation, either."
Fleury is on an expiring contract and has a full no-trade clause. He'll likely require a prominent role on a contending team to accept a move, LeBrun notes.
The Wild acquired Fleury from the Chicago Blackhawks prior to the 2022 trade deadline. The three-time Stanley Cup champion posted a .905 save percentage in 79 appearances with the club, but he's struggled with a .897 clip and minus-4.2 goals saved above average in 2023-24.
However, Fleury does own a lifetime .911 playoff save percentage throughout his 20-year career.
The Wild are currently eight points back of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference through 43 games.
