New Jersey Devils prospect Luke Hughes is set to join the NHL club this weekend in Boston, after his school team — the University of Michigan — was eliminated in the semifinals of the Frozen Four on Thursday.
Hughes, who was drafted fourth overall by the Devils in 2021, saw his team fall 5-2 to Quinnipiac. He is the youngest brother of NHLers Quinn (Canucks) and Jack (Devils). Luke had 10 goals and 38 assists in 39 games patrolling the blue line for the Wolverines this season.
Quinnipiac will play the University of Minnesota for the NCAA title on Saturday.
It was a good-news, bad-news kind of Friday for the Minnesota Wild.
On the good news side, leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov will return to the lineup Saturday against the St. Louis Blues after missing a full month with a lower-body injury.
Kaprizov carried the offence for the Wild this season, leading the way with 39 goals and 74 points before his injury. But the team was able to stay afloat without him, going 7-3-3 in that span to remain just two points behind the Avalanche and Stars for first in the Central Divison. The Wild have four games remaining, including two next week against wild-card hopefuls Winnipeg and Nashville.
On the bad-news front, the Wild announced top centre Joel Eriksson Ek is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Eriksson Ek was hurt during Thursday's loss to the Penguins reportedly after blocking a shot. He is tied for third in team scoring with 61 points and is the team's most-used face-off man.
Additionally, centre Oskar Sundqvist — acquired at the trade deadline to provide depth down the middle — also left the Penguins game with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day.
Having officially been eliminated from the playoffs on Thursday night, the Ottawa Senators made some roster moves on Friday morning, sending rookies Ridly Greig and Leevi Merilainen down to their American Hockey League farm team.
Greig, 20, had two goals and nine points in 20 games with Ottawa this season, to go with 13 goals and 27 points in 35 games with Belleville of the AHL.
Merilainen only just made his NHL debut this week, stopping 34 of 37 shots in a 3-2 loss to Carolina on Tuesday in overtime. The 20-year-old Finnish goalie was pulled in Thursday night's loss to Florida after allowing three goals on 12 shots.
Belleville has four games remaining in its regular-season schedule and is two points back of the final playoff spot in the AHL's North Division.
The Blue Jackets assigned four players to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters ahead of a pivotal game in the AHL playoff race.
Forwards Josh Dunne and Joona Luoto, and defencemen Marcus Bjork and Billy Sweezey were assigned to the Monsters Friday. All four were in the NHL on emergency recalls.
The Monsters visit the Laval Rocket Friday night as the two clubs battle for the final playoff spot in the North Division. The Rocket currently hold the final spot with 68 points but the Monsters trail by just one point and have a game in hand.
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