The All-Star break is almost upon us and once again, it was a busy week on and off the ice where several players took leaves while another entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Here’s a rundown of the key stories of the week.
Setback For Chytil: The Rangers were hoping that they’d be getting a key center back soon with Filip Chytil returning to practice. Instead, he suffered a setback in his recovery from a concussion in practice and soon after, the team announced that he’d miss the rest of the season and playoffs. His season comes to an end after just ten games while New York now has a notable hole to fill in its lineup. Notably, with Chytil confirmed to be out for the rest of the season, GM Chris Drury will be able to use Chytil’s money ($4.45MM) that’s on LTIR to go out and try to find a replacement on the trade market.
Gallagher Gets Five: Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher was handed a five-game suspension for his elbow to the head on Islanders blueliner Adam Pelech. With the Department of Player Safety electing to only do a basic phone hearing, it’s the maximum they could suspend him for. It’s the first suspension of Gallagher’s career; he’ll forfeit nearly $170K in salary and won’t be able to return until February 15th. Meanwhile, Pelech, who has dealt with concussion issues, is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Parise To Colorado: Veteran winger Zach Parise had been speculated as an in-season signing for a while now but many thought he’d wind up back with the Islanders. That isn’t the case as instead, he signed a one-year, $825K (prorated) contract with Colorado. The deal doesn’t contain any additional performance bonuses. Parise is a veteran of 18 NHL seasons, recording 429 goals, 21 of which came last season with the Isles. While it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be able to score at that per-game pace after missing more than half the season, it’s a low-risk addition for Colorado who will likely spot him into the role they initially signed Tomas Tatar for before they moved him to Seattle. The 39-year-old will make his Avalanche debut after the All-Star break.
Extensions: The Blackhawks continued their recent trend of signing veterans to above-market extensions, inking goaltender Petr Mrazek to a two-year, $8.5MM deal. The contract actually represents a small raise for the 31-year-old who is playing on a $3.8MM price tag and made it to Chicago as part of a cap-dumping…
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