NHL Training Camp Buzz: Boldy week to week for Wild with lower-body injury
Dach set to play 1st game in 11 months for Canadiens; Karlsson still day to day for Penguins
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Minnesota Wild
Matt Boldy is week to week for the Wild because of a lower-body injury.
The 23-year-old forward did not practice Monday. He had an NHL career-high 69 points (29 goals, 40 assists) in 75 games last season, his third with Minnesota.
Coach John Hynes said the injury isn’t “major” and he expects Boldy to be ready for the Wild season opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct.10.
Boldy practiced and spoke with the media Saturday. The team had the day off Sunday. He is expected to be a second-line right wing alongside Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson.
Selected by Minnesota with the No. 12 pick at the 2019 NHL Draft, Boldy has 171 points (75 goals, 96 assists) in 203 regular-season games and four points (one goal, three assists) in 12 Stanley Cup Playoff games. -- Jessi Pierce
Montreal Canadiens
Kirby Dach will play his first game in nearly a year when the Canadiens host the Philadelphia Flyers at Bell Centre in Montreal on Monday (7 p.m. ET).
The 23-year-old center sustained a season-ending knee injury in the Canadiens’ second game last season on Oct. 14, 2023, against the Chicago Blackhawks. Dach will play on a line with Patrik Laine and Alex Newhook.
“I’m definitely looking still to take steps personally and making sure that I feel good and confident in my game,” Dach said, “and can get it back to a place where I felt it was last year and keep taking steps from that.
“As a line, I think just building chemistry and working together and being in these games now against other teams you’re going to start to find spacing with each other and where each other is going to be on the ice.”
The No. 3 pick at the 2019 draft by the Blackhawks, Dach has 99 points (33 goals, 66 assists) in 212 regular-season games with Montreal and Chicago, and six points (one goal, five assists) in nine playoff games. -- Sean Farrell
Pittsburgh Penguins
Erik Karlsson has started skating on an individual basis but remains day to day with an upper-body injury.
The defenseman worked alone before practices Saturday and Monday with a scheduled day off Sunday. Karlsson, entering his second season with the Penguins, has been held out since training camp opened Wednesday.
When healthy, the 34-year-old is likely to continue a defense pair with Marcus Pettersson. Sebastian Aho is currently with Pettersson.
Karlsson led Pittsburgh’s defensemen with 56 points (11 goals, 45 assists) last season. Kris Letang was second with 51 points (10 goals, 41 assists).
Matt Grzelcyk, who signed a one-year, $2.75 million contract July 1, has been with Letang through the first four full-team sessions on what could be listed as the top pair.
Karlsson should also resume his role at the point on the top power play.
Letang, there through most of his first 17 seasons in Pittsburgh, took over for Karlsson on Monday, the first day the Penguins worked on special teams. Forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell filled out the rest of the unit.
Pittsburgh’s power play ranked 30th in the NHL (15.3 percent) last season. David Quinn was hired as an assistant June 12, replacing Todd Reirden as coach of the power play.
“It changes a lot,” Letang said. “He brings new ideas, obviously. Everybody has his own vision. ... He wants to bring certain details that he thinks we should exploit. There’s always an adaptation and new ideas flowing.” -- Wes Crosby
New York Islanders
Ilya Sorokin missed his fifth day of training camp Monday.
The 29-year-old goalie has yet to participate in Islanders training camp after sustaining an upper-body injury during offseason workouts that required back surgery.
"He's been on the ice," coach Patrick Roy said. "That's about it."
The team did not provide an answer as to whether he’s been facing shots. Sorokin went 25-19-12 with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage in 56 games (55 starts) last season.
General manager Lou Lamoriello shared before the start of camp that Sorokin could miss the first few days. Sorokin is entering the first of an eight-year contract that he signed July 1, 2023.
Semyon Varlamov signed a four-year contract July 1, 2023. New York also signed Marcus Hogberg to a two-year contract May 7, and Keith Kinkaid is in camp on a professional tryout.
Defenseman Mike Reilly did not skate Monday.
"He just didn't feel good today," Roy said.
Reilly, 31, played 59 games with the Islanders last season after being claimed off waivers from the Florida Panthers. He signed a one-year contract July 1. -- Stefen Rosner
Edmonton Oilers
Darnell Nurse is "confident" he will be ready when the Oilers open the season against the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 9, but the defenseman is not certain he will be able to play in any preseason games.
Nurse is still recovering from an undisclosed injury sustained in the Stanley Cup Final but took part in the opening day of training camp on Thursday, participating in all the drills.
"It's a fluid thing," Nurse said. "I'll take it day by day, but I'm feeling good out there."
Nurse sustained the injury in the first period of Game 2 against the Panthers on a hit from forward Evan Rodrigues. Nurse was limited to seven shifts over the course of the rest of the game, but did play the remainder of the series, which Edmonton lost in seven games.
He said the injury affected his offseason routine.
"It kind of forced me to kick my feet up and relax for the first time, and it was good," Nurse said. "For me, I just relaxed got away from everything and reset. It was a great summer."
Edmonton opened its preseason with a 3-2 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
"I absolutely do," Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said when asked if he thought Nurse would be ready for the regular season. "I haven't been able to talk to him today, but I think he feels pretty good. I'm very confident he'll play at least two exhibition games." -- Derek Van Diest
Toronto Maple Leafs
Jake McCabe, who is entering the final season of a four-year contract, said he has had preliminary discussions with the Maple Leafs on a new contract and is not averse to negotiating during the season.
"I love it here and I think they enjoy my game too so that's why you have agents and now it's training camp time," the defenseman said Friday. "I love it here. We've been chatting and we will see where things go."
McCabe, who was acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on February 27, 2023, had 28 points (eight goals, 20 assists) in 73 regular-season games last season. -- Dave McCarthy
Winnipeg Jets
Ville Heinola is out indefinitely because of an infection in his surgically repaired ankle.
The issue for the 23-year-old defenseman can be traced back to training camp last season when he suffered a broken ankle in the team’s final preseason game. Heinola needed surgery and a screw inserted to repair the injury, which limited him to 41 games with Manitoba of the American Hockey League last season.
“It’s not good,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said Friday. “I don’t know what the next steps are. Doctors are going to have to look at him a little bit more.”
Heinola was on the ice and took part in Winnipeg’s first day of camp on Thursday but was absent Friday.
“The last couple of days it’s sort of swollen-up on him and we weren’t sure what it was,” Arniel said. “They looked at it; it’s infected.
“This isn’t day to day, so we will come back around to this in maybe a week or so and see where he’s at. It’s a little bit more serious than we thought.”
A first-round pick (No. 20) in the 2019 NHL Draft, Heinola had 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in 41 games with Manitoba in 2023-24. He has 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) in 35 career games with the Jets. -- Darrin Bauming
