With a few days off, the Tampa Bay Lightning made a couple of roster moves. Gage Goncalves, Phil Myers, and Max Crozier were reassigned to the Syracuse Crunch. Goncalves and Crozier are waiver-exempt while Myers hasn’t accumulated the 30 days in the NHL or 10 games played in order to have to go through the waiver process again. The question will be if they actually make their way to Syracuse or if these are just paper transactions.
It is worth noting that Emil Lilleberg, who is waivers exempt, was not one of the players reassigned. Perhaps the coaching staff has enjoyed his physical play during his short stint with the team.
The Crunch do have a game at 1:00 PM against Utica today and could use some help along the blueline. They pulled off a 3-2 shootout win against Cleveland on Saturday, but had two call-ups in the line-up in Zachary Massicotte and Patrick Kudla. As they try and hold onto the second spot in the Atlantic they could use some experience on the back-end.
The status of the trio will most likely depend on the health of Mikhail Sergachev, Haydn Fleury, and Tanner Jeannot. According to CapFriendly, both Sergachev and Fleury are on LTIR which requires them to miss 10 games or 24 calendar days. Fleury hasn’t played since New Year’s Eve which would put his earliest possible return on the 25th against Arizona. Sergachev hasn’t played since December 19th so he’s eligible to come back as soon as he’s healthy enough to play.
Jeannot is on injured reserve, which requires a 7-day stay. He’ll also be eligible to return against Minnesota on the 18th when the Bolts are back in action. If Sergy is ready to come back, there will have to be some tweaking to the salary cap to get him back, and if Jeannot isn’t ready to play he could be moved to LTIR. There is also the questionable status of Erik Cernak, who has left a few games with injuries recently.
We’ll see how it all shakes out when the Lightning are back at practice later this week. Despite being on a three-game winning streak, it’s a good time for the Bolts to have a few days off so their veterans can heal up, not only the ones missing games, but also those that are nursing playable injuries.
Other hockey news
NHL reveals 2024 All-Star game jersey designs [NHL.com]
They are…fine. Yes, folks are going to heap a bunch of criticism on them because Justin Bieber is involved (they were designed by drew house, a fashion brand co-founded by Biebs). They are all-star game jerseys, we’ll see them on one day and that’s it. There is no need to get too worked up about them.
NHL All-Star Game rosters rounded out [NHL.com]
The results of the fan vote are in and it’s no surprise that there are some Maple Leafs joining Auston Matthews. William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Morgan Reilly were voted in. So were Canucks J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and Thatcher Demko. Goaltenders Jeremy Swayman, Alexandar Georgiev, and Sergei Bobrovsky were added to the draft pool. Cale Makar and Leon Draisaitl round out the the players that were voted in by the fans.
Newfoundland Growlers sign Terry Ryan [Sportsnet]
With their roster a bit depleted, the ECHL squad reached out to former first-round pick Terry Ryan, signing him to play against the Adirondack Thunder. Did I forget to mention that he was drafted in 1995? The 47-year-old had not played professionally in 20 years but that didn’t stop him from dropping the gloves with Zach Walker. While he hasn’t played for a professional team in two decades, he has been on the ice for the Sudbury Bulldogs. Ryan plays Ted Hitchcock on Shoresy.
NHL’s biggest surprises and disappointment’s through the first half of the season [The Athletic]
Best surprise for the Lightning – Calvin de Haan. Biggest disappointment – the stars (not named Kuch) aren’t shining bright enough.
