Ice Chips: Habs D Wideman (back) out indefinitely
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Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens announced Thursday that defenceman Chris Wideman is out indefinitely with a back injury.
Wideman, 33, had six assists in 46 games last season while averaging 13:30 TOI. The St. Louis, Missouri native has 20 goals and 78 points in 291 career NHL games split between the Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers and Canadiens.
General manager Kent Hughes announced Wednesday that centre Christian Dvorak is out until at least November as he continues to work his way back from knee surgery he had in March.
Vancouver Canucks
Ila Mikheyev was sent back to Vancouver for personal reasons, TSN's Farhan Lalji reports.
Head coach Rick Tocchet confirmed it was not related to his knee injury and expects him back in the next day or two.
The original plan was for him to skate with the C group in a non-contact jersey to start camp.
Skated in 2 groups today:
Morning group:
Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Höglander
Di Giuseppe-Blueger-Beauvillier
Räty-Dries-Studnicka
McDonough-Sasson-Klimovich
Cole-Hronek
Brisebois-Myers
Wolanin-Woo
Mynio-Brzustewicz
Demko
Tolopilo
Young
Group 2:
Podkolzin-Miller-Boeser
Bains-Suter-Garland
Joshua-Åman-Karlsson
Nielsen-Wouters-Bloom
D:
Hughes-Juulsen
Soucy-McWard
Rathbone-Irwin
Hirose-Johansson
Silovs
Martin
DeSmith
Toronto Maple Leafs
New addition Tyler Bertuzzi is skating alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner at Group 1 practice.
Bertuzzi, 28, had four goals and 14 points in 29 games last season with the Detroit Red Wings before being dealt to the Boston Bruins, where he had four goals and 16 points in 21 games.
Rookie Matthew Knies is skating alongside John Tavares with Sam Lafferty at right wing.
On the blueline, Jake McCabe is paired with free agent addition John Klingberg while Mark Giordano is skating with Timothy Liljegren.
Defenceman Simon Benoit (back spasms) did not take part in practice today as the on-ice portion of training camp gets underway. He is currently listed as day-to-day.
Benoit signed a one-year, $775,000 contract with the Maple Leafs as a free agent on Aug. 28. He spent the last five seasons with the Anaheim Ducks organization. He had three goals and 10 points in 78 games last season but was not tendered a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent.
Edmonton Oilers
Forward Ryan McLeod is not on the ice for the first practice of the season, per TSN's Ryan Rishaug. The 24-year-old re-signed in the off-season to a two-year, $4.2 million contract. The Mississauga, Ont., product scored 11 goals with 23 points in 57 games last season.
Free agent addition Connor Brown is skating alongside captain Connor McDavid to open training camp. Brown only played in four games last season with the Washington Capitals, missing the rest of the season after undergoing ACL surgery. Evander Kane completes the trio as he skates on McDavid's left side.
Kane-McDavid-Brown
RNH-Draisaitl-Hyman
Foegele-Pederson-Ryan
Holloway-Sutter-Janmark
Erne-Malone-Lavoie
Nurse-Bouchard
Kulak-Ceci
Broberg-Desharnais
Niemelainen-Gleason
Skinner
Campbell
Ottawa Senators
Forward Josh Norris is wearing a yellow non-contact jersey to open training camp after he "tweaked something" during last week's captain skate in Ottawa.
General manager Pierre Dorion said that Norris didn't want to wear the yellow non-contact jersey but they're doing this out of extra caution. He insists that if the regular season started tomorrow, Norris would be playing.
Norris was sidelined for most of the 2022-23 campaign after having shoulder surgery in January. He had two goals and three points in eight games.
Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch notes that Vladimir Tarasenko is skating alongside Norris and Drake Batherson.
Tarasenko had 10 goals and 29 points in 38 games with the St. Louis Blues last season before being traded to the New York Rangers, where he recorded eight goals and 21 points in 31 games. He inked a one-year, $5 million deal with the Senators as a free agent on July 27.
On defence, Thomas Chabot has been skating on the right side as he is paired with Jakob Chychrun, who joined the Senators on March 1 after being acquired from the Arizona Coyotes.
Winnipeg Jets
Head coach Rick Bowness confirmed Wednesday that the trio of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi will start training camp together.
Per TSN's John Lu, the other trio of regulars in their group is Morgan Barron with Rasmus Kupari and Vladislav Namestnikov.
Vilardi and Kupari were acquired in the off-season on June 27, along with Alex Iafallo and a 2024 second-round pick in the trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to Los Angeles.
Vilardi had a career season in 2022-23, scoring 23 goals with 41 points in 63 games. Kupari scored three goals with 15 points in 66 games with the Kings and had nine points in 11 games with the AHL's Ontario Reign.