NHL News: Chicago, Dallas, Washington, Expansion

Tracey Myers: Now, Petr Mrazek injured his groin. That seems to be the consensus. Basically, Mrazek pulled him because he did not want to make the situation worse. As it is, the Chicago goaltender will be listed day-to-day as further tests are done.

Now, the good news is this is not related to the mask. Some were concerned with that more than the groin pull. Chicago expects to not rush Mrazek along at this point. This is his third groin injury of the season.

Saad Yousuf: Dallas had enough with the Tyler Seguin injury. Fortunately, that turned out to be way better news than expected (he still needed 30 stitches). However, Mason Marchment suffered a knee injury, was out against Seattle, and could miss some more time.

With the knee-on-knee hit suffered, Marchment went back to Dallas for further tests on the injury. For the immediate future, Dallas is missing two key forwards.

Update: Marchment will miss 3-4 weeks due to his knee injury. Seguin expects to skate on Monday to see where he is at.

James Nichols: Forwards Nathan Bastian and Miles Wood are both out with injuries. Bastian has been out since the weekend and Wood left Tuesday night’s game against the Lightning. A further update is expected later on Wednesday.

Eric Francis of Sportsnet: Finally, Brandon Sutter may have some hope in his quest to resume his NHL career. Sutter was a member of the Vancouver Canucks. After two years of suffering from COVID and “Long COVID”, the forward is leaning toward starting a training regimen.

This is in the hopes of playing in the NHL once again. Sutter’s condition got worse in the summer of 2021 well after most Vancouver players contracted COVID in March of that year. It boils down to can he up the workouts? Until then, the 34 year old can only hope.

Ed Duhatschek: Really, expansion chatter is up. There are several scenarios and some are just pure fantasy. Houston seems to always be the frontrunner as franchise number 33. Since Arizona looks to be staying. After that, Atlanta gains some traction again. Does the NHL try for a third time there? That’s the big question (even with TNT there).

Toronto gets talked about a lot and it makes sense. Hey, baseball has two teams in New York City. Basketball technically has two as well. After that, Quebec City, Kansas City, and Halifax feel more like pipe dreams at this juncture.

Roman Stubbs: Some bad NHL news out of Washington D.C. centers on more injuries for the Capitals. Sonny Milano is day-to-day and now no one knows when Alex Ovechkin may return. Ovechkin did not play on Tuesday night against the Rangers. His status for the Buffalo game remains unknown.