Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers will miss the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a right foot injury.
Jets head coach Scott Arniel said Tuesday that Ehlers is out week to week after re-aggravating an existing injury.
Ehlers collided with an official in a game against Chicago on Saturday and had to be helped off the ice.
The 29-year-old has 24 goals and 63 points in 69 games this season.
The Jets might be getting some reinforcements soon. Forward Gabe Vilardi skated Tuesday and is considered day-to-day. He hasn’t played since March 23 with an upper-body injury.
The Jets, who won their first Presidents’ Trophy last week after clinching the league’s best regular-season record, are still waiting to learn their first-round playoff opponent.
Gabriel Landeskog has rejoined the Colorado Avalanche after taking part in a two-game minor-league rehab assignment.
The team said Tuesday the captain’s conditioning loan to the American Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles was terminated. He played games for the Eagles on Friday and Saturday in the latest step toward a return from a knee injury that has led to two surgeries and caused him to miss the past three regular seasons.
Last weekend was the first time the 32-year-old Landeskog has played in a professional game since hoisting the Stanley Cup in late June 2022. It was a successful minor-league stint for Landeskog, too, filled with hard checks, tumbles to the ice, a scrum where he put a player in a headlock and even a goal.
He told reporters after Saturday’s game his knee feels “really good.”
“Obviously, I’ve been skating for a long time now, and I’ve been working on all nuances of skating,” he added. “It’s one thing to be on the ice and skate and do certain drills, but it’s another one to do it in a game — game speed and game intensity.
“I know I put the work in. I know I’ve put my time in and now this weekend, I’ve gotten a chance to just not put it to the test but take the next step and just trust my training — trust where my knee’s at, and it’s been feeling really good.”
The Swedish forward could be activated as soon as the end of the regular season to play this weekend in Game 1 of the Avalanche’s first-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars.
His return is a major boost for Colorado, especially given the difficult path through the Western Conference.
“Not anywhere near where I want it to be,” Landeskog said after his performance Saturday. “But I think it’s a good step in the right direction.”
Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse will have a hearing with the NHL department of player safety on Tuesday, one day after his cross-check on Los Angeles Kings forward Quinton Byfield.
Nurse lowered the boom on Byfield with 5:24 remaining in the second period on Monday. The Kings went on to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division with a 5-0 win against the Oilers at Rogers Place.
Nurse was whistled for a five-minute major penalty for cross-checking and a game misconduct for the hit on Byfield, who did not return to the contest.
“No update,” Kings head coach Jim Hiller said of Byfield’s condition. “He wasn’t able to finish, that’s all. It doesn’t matter how I saw it.”
The Oilers and Kings are set to square off for the fourth consecutive season in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Nurse, 30, has recorded 33 points (five goals, 28 assists) in 76 games this season.
Byfield, 22, scored a power-play goal in the first period to boost his point total to 54 (23 goals, 31 assists) in 80 games this season.
