Deen’s Daily: Preseason Injuries Continue to Mount; Swayman Meeting in Boston

Preseason injuries continued to tear through the NHL on Tuesday. And this time it’s taken out the No. 1 overall pick.

Macklin Celebrini left the San Jose Sharks game and did not return after colliding with the boards behind the goal, suffering what the team called a lower-body injury. In Ottawa, the Senators lost Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, and Thomas Chabot on the same night to upper body injuries. Not good.

But it gets worse.

In New York, Artemi Panarin left the game with an injury and is being evaluated.

So that’s five notable losses. Five in the same night of preseason action after we’ve already seen injuries to Drew Doughty, David Reinbacher, Patrik Laine, William Nylander, Erik Karlsson, and Ryan Lindgren.

Colorado Hockey Now

It might be time to plug my story from Monday, where I asked Jared Bednar, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen about the preseason and if they thought it was too long.

We learned later that day that the preseason length is a hot topic at the Board of Governors meeting and will likely be something that’s discussed during the upcoming CBA negotiations. TSN Insider Pierre LeBrun mentioned, again, that the NHL might consider cutting the preseason down to four games while adding two additional regular-season games to each team’s schedule.

I’m not a fan of lengthening the regular season, but if that’s what it takes to have fewer exhibitions, then I’ll take it.

The NHL and NHLPA have already chatted about it and will do so more seriously in CBA talks: reduce pre-season to 4 games (and add 2 games to regular season to make it 84).
That’s the idea anyway. We’ll see where it goes in CBA talks.

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) October 2, 2024

Perhaps the one (and only) bright spot in the Avs’ 6-1 preseason loss on Monday was the play of Nikolai Kovalenko. The 24-year-old was paired with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the top line. And according to his head coach, fared pretty well in that spot.

Around The NHL

Paul Bissonnette/Boston: The drama surrounding Jeremy Swayman and the Boston Bruins has been easily the most intriguing story to follow for the last handful of weeks. Not only did training camp begin without the Bruins top goalie signed, but GM Don Sweeney later referenced Dec. 1 — the deadline for RFAs to sign to play that year. He also called out the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast for what he insinuated were false rumors about a lowball offer he made to the goalie.

Fast forward to yesterday, when team President Cam Neely upped the drama with his “64 million reasons” comment, which led to a response from Swayman’s agent Lewis Gross. But, apparently, the three are trying to hash things out on their own. Sweeney, Neely, and Swayman, that is.

Montreal Hockey Now: Some good news on the injury front. I predicted yesterday that Laine might not get to play games this upcoming season. But, thankfully, his knee won’t require surgery. He’ll still miss time but not the entire season.

San Jose Hockey Now: More from Sheng Peng in San Jose on the Celebrini injury.