NHL Buzz: Labanc signs 1-year contract with Blue Jackets
Sharks assign Askarov to AHL; Pearson gets deal with Golden Knights
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Columbus Blue Jackets
Kevin Labanc signed a one-year, $775,000 contact with the Blue Jackets on Saturday.
The 28-year-old forward, who was on a professional tryout contract with the New Jersey Devils, leads all players in goals during the preseason with six in four games.
Labanc had nine points (two goals, seven assists) in 46 games with the San Jose Sharks last season. Selected by San Jose in the sixth round (No. 171) of the 2014 NHL Draft, he has 225 points (82 goals, 143 assists) in 478 regular-season games and 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 30 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
"Kevin Labanc has been a productive offensive player in this league for several years," Columbus general manager Don Waddell said. "He has an excellent shot and playmaking ability and given his character we believe he will fit in very well with our group."
The Blue Jackets concluded their preseason with a 7-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday and open the regular season at the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
San Jose Sharks
Goalie Yaroslav Askarov was sent to San Jose of the American Hockey League on Friday after being out all of training camp because of a lower-body injury.
"That was the right step for him," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "He'll go down there and practice and take it day by day. When he's ready to get into game action, I'm sure they'll put him in."
Acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators on Aug. 23, the 22-year-old has three games of NHL experience over the past two seasons with Nashville, with a 1-1-0 record, 2.58 goals-against average and .914 save percentage.
The Sharks will open the season against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, with Vitek Vanecek and Mackenzie Blackwood as their two goalies.
"We'll focus on those guys," Warsofsky said of Vanecek and Blackwood. "If the time comes [for Askarov], it comes.
"He's behind, right? He didn't practice with us throughout training camp. ... It's good to get him down there and get going with full practices. Then, when he gets in a game, he's in a game." -- Max Miller
St. Louis Blues
Pavel Buchnevich missed practice Saturday with a lower-body injury.
St. Louis, which plays its final preseason game against the Chicago Blackhawks in Milwaukee on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NHL Network), skated in full and will travel Sunday prior to its regular-season opener against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday (4:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN360, TVAS).
"A little bit of lower-body tenderness that we were able to manage yesterday, and we have the time off, we still have a practice when we get to Seattle, a day off with travel tomorrow," Blues coach Drew Bannister said of Buchnevich. "Just making sure that he's 100 percent going into the game on Tuesday.
"Nothing that's been told of me from our trainers right now (regarding missing Tuesday), so just continue maintenance with the lower-body issue that he has right now."
Forwards Brandon Saad (birth of child) and Oskar Sundqvist (torn right ACL) will not play on the season-opening three-game road trip. Sundqvist is expected to start the season on injured reserve.
"I think there's still difficult decisions to make," Bannister said of the forward group. "Obviously with some of our forwards, 'Sunny' being injured (and) 'Saader' not being available for us on the first trip, there's still decisions to be made, but some players have come in and played themselves into the lineup and grabbed a spot. Another opportunity here tonight to come out and for players to impress." -- Lou Korac
Vegas Golden Knights
Tanner Pearson signed a one-year, $775,000 contract with the Golden Knights on Friday.
The 32-year-old, who was on a professional tryout contract, has three points (two goals, one assist) in four preseason games with Vegas.
"It's nice to be sticking around," Pearson said after practice Friday. "It's a great feeling, honestly. ... It was a long summer not knowing what was going to happen here, so I'm pretty happy."
Pearson had 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 54 games for the Montreal Canadiens last season.
Selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round (No. 30) of the 2012 NHL Draft, Pearson has 285 points (138 goals, 147 assists) in 644 regular-season games for the Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Penguins and Kings and 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) in 51 playoff games.
Pearson won the Stanley Cup with Los Angeles in 2014.
The Golden Knights play their final preseason game against the Sharks on Saturday and open the regular season against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.
Anaheim Ducks
Beckett Sennecke was returned to Oshawa of the Ontario Hockey League on Friday, two days after the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft made his preseason debut for Anaheim.
The 18-year-old forward missed rookie camp and the first four preseason games after sustaining a foot fracture during offseason training.
Sennecke had four hits and three giveaways in 15:34 of ice time in a 5-2 win against the Utah Hockey Club on Wednesday at Honda Center. He played on a line with Mason McTavish and Robby Fabbri.
"For me, it felt pretty fast out there," Sennecke said. "Guys are a lot bigger, stronger, obviously, but I kind of held my own."
Ducks coach Greg Cronin said he was impressed with Sennecke's confidence and vision on the ice.
"You can see the plays he made, a lot of them didn't connect, but you can see what he's looking at," Cronin said. "He's an elite thinker, like he's a step ahead of everybody. There are guys that are first-pass players, like he's a second-pass player, like he's already made the first pass in his head and he's looking to go where the second pass is going to be. You can see it in the way he moves the puck and how he uses his body."
Sennecke had 68 points (27 goals, 41 assists) in 63 games with Oshawa last season. -- Dan Arritt
