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What's wrong with Sami Vatanen?
Will he play in Buffalo tonight?
Vatanen stayed away from the ice and performed some off-ice workouts Wednesday. The Finnish defenseman has not resumed skating since he suffered an injury last Friday night in Sunrise, Florida.
We know that Vatanen injured his knee, which likely will force him to sit out a third straight game in Buffalo. Vatanen' availability for Saturday’s tussle with the Washington Capitals is also in question today.
Anaheim Carlyle head coach on Wednesday told the team's website he didn't see this Vatanen matter lasting as long as it has.
“I was expecting Sami to be skating right now so we’re status quo,… Carlyle said. “I’m somewhat surprised.…
Vatanen, 25, has scored 2 goals and 15 assists in 15 games played this season. Vatanen is a right shot D who has compiled 31 goals and 84 assists in 253 career NHL games. Vatanen also has 4 goals and 12 assists in 28 career playoff games.
Vatanen is a 20 minute per game TOI D.
Super rookie Brandon Montour will once again replace Vatanen in the lineup. Montour scored his first NHL goal in Tampa last Saturday night. Montour was a second round pick of the Ducks in 2014. He's a Branford, Ontario native and is a highly coveted D prospect.
Vatanen's injury misfortune is now Montour's fortune.
Montour is going to be paired with Cam Fowler.
Montour skated 17 minutes TOI in Anaheim's 4-1 loss at the NY Rangers on Tuesday night. He has nine shot attempts and five shots on goal. The kid has a bomb of a shot.
Montour is a two time AHL All Star and is frankly too good a player to be riding buses in AHL San Diego. The Ducks are blessed to have two bombers in Montour and Shea Theodore maturing nicely in their AHL incubator.
Time is up. Both Montour and Theodore are seemingly wasting their time dominating opponents on a nightly basis in The A.
Bob Murray will have trade either Montour or Theodore in order to secure the elusive 25 goal scoring power top six power forward who can Play with pace and physicality.
Montour and fellow Ducks D prospect D Shea Theodore are NHL ready players and are being scouted by several NHL teams today. Why? The Ducks are not willing to trade Fowler, Vatanen, Hampus Lindholm nor Josh Manson. The Ducks have seven NHL D right now and can only use Montour and Theodore on injury call ups.
These two kids are too good to be buried in AHL San Diego until the end of their respective entry level contracts.
Evander Kane to Anaheim trade buzz has been percolating for the past seven months.
Tim Murray and Bob Murray may be working out a deal.
All Bib Murray would have to do is trade one of Montour or Theodore for Kane. Before you say the Ducks can't afford Kane, just know that they can as more than half of his $5.25M salary for this season has already been paid out. Tim Murray could always absorb up to 50% of dollars still owed to Kane which would be approximately $1 million in real dollars.
In my opinion, that's a steal of a deal to get hands on either Montour or Theodore.
Here's another wrinkle:
What if Bob Murray vetoes trading either Montour or Theodore and instead trades Vatanen for Evander Kane?
Kane makes $5.25M AAV this and next season, while Vatanen earns $4.88M AAV for the next three seasons after this one.
Money in. Money out. Both teams wins the good old fashioned hockey trade.
Vatanen, a native of Jyvskyka, Finland would look great playing on fellow Finn Rasmus Ristolainen's right side for Buffalo's return to the glory days.
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Is Evander Kane healthy enough to play tonight versus the Anaheim Ducks?
Not sure.
The Sabres had a mandatory day off on Wednesday.
Kane was injured when he went face first into the end wall after he pitted the OT GWG against San Jose on Tuesday night.
Kane lost his balance and spilled face first into the end wall.
Talk about ecstasy and agony all at once.
After the OT win Kane said he was "OK" when asked how he felt.
Kane took the skate this morning, however, didn't take line rushes. Kane did work on the second unit PP.
Kane and Girgensons are not participating in trio work this morning.
That means nothing. Dan Bylsma ran these lines at the game day skate:
Reino-ROR-Booker Moose-Jack-Enzo Bailey-ERod-Gio DLo-Grant-Moulson
Will these be the game time lines?
Don't bet on it. I expect Kane and Girgensons to go Duck hunting tonight.
I find it ironic that the two players the Ducks have been scouting this season are not participating in line rushes at the morning skate. After the San Jose win, I had a lengthy chat without Girgensons in the Buffalo room. To my eyes there was no injury that I could detect. Perhaps he has a 24 hour bug and needs to be rehydrated off ice today in order to be ready to skate tonight.
Is this a strategy that Tim Murray is employing?
As a precautionary measure, Tim Murray has called up two forwards from the Rochester Amerks.
Derek Grant and Evan Rodrigues are taking line rushes with the Sabres this morning..
Grant joins the team for the second time this season. In 41 games for the Sabres and Nashville Predators this season, the Abbotsford, British Columbia native has four assists and 24 penalty minutes.
This is the second recall of the season for Rodrigues, who currently ranks third on the Amerks with 18 assists and fifth with 27 points. In four career NHL games for the Sabres, Rodrigues has recorded two points (1+1) and a plus-1 rating.