{"id":162855,"date":"2025-09-23T03:22:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T03:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/162855\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T03:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T03:22:06","slug":"snapshots-vasilevskiy-geertsen-walton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/162855\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapshots: Vasilevskiy, Geertsen, Walton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Lightning star goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/a> did not practice today, according to the Tampa Bay Times\u2019 Eduardo A. Encina<\/a>, an absence that marks a third consecutive day of practice missed. Head coach Jon Cooper told the media Saturday<\/a> that Vasilevskiy\u2019s absence was related to \u201cplayer management,\u201d adding that the Lightning will look to \u201cmanage\u201d Vasilevskiy this season to keep him in the best possible shape. While there is no firm indication that Vasilevskiy is dealing with any injury, with each passing day Vasilevskiy misses his status becomes more of a storyline to watch in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Encina specifically noted that this current absence \u201cseems too much like\u201d Vasilevskiy\u2019s training camp absence two years ago, one that led to him missing two months due to lower back surgery. Although there is no further word on Vasilevskiy\u2019s status than what Cooper has said, keeping Vasilevskiy in as strong shape as possible has to be one of the Lightning\u2019s top priorities. The 31-year-old has long been one of the league\u2019s elite netminders, and his .921 save percentage across 63 games last season was an exceptional bounce-back season after a 2023-24 campaign that was below the high standards of performance he\u2019s set.<\/p>\n

Other notes from around the NHL:<\/p>\n

Mason Geertsen<\/a> is generating attention at Buffalo Sabres camp with his physical play, and it is becoming increasingly possible that the 30-year-old veteran finds his way back to an NHL roster in 2025-26. The Athletic\u2019s Matthew Fairburn reported<\/a> today that head coach Lindy Ruff \u201cenvisions [Geertsen] as the team\u2019s enforcer,\u201d and Buffalo Hockey Beat\u2019s Bill Hoppe wrote<\/a> that Sabres fans should \u201cexpect\u201d Geertsen \u201cto rack up some fighting majors this season.\u201d Geertsen is a 6\u20194\u2033, 231-pound natural defenseman who is also capable of playing forward in a traditional enforcer\u2019s role. He hasn\u2019t played in the NHL since 2021-22, when he skated in 25 games for Ruff\u2019s New Jersey Devils. He didn\u2019t earn his first NHL point in that stint, but he did fight five times and rack up 77 penalty minutes. Geertsen has since played exclusively in the AHL, but with the Sabres potentially looking to up their physical edge heading into 2025-26, it appears Geertsen could be getting another chance to play in the NHL. Geertsen, who is repped by Quartexx\u2019s Paul Capizzano, signed a two-year, two-way contract this summer that carries a $775K salary at the NHL level and a $425K AHL salary.
\nEarlier this month, we covered news that Winnipeg Jets prospect Kieron Walton<\/a> suffered an injury in the team\u2019s rookie camp game against the Montreal Canadiens. Walton hasn\u2019t skated since, but The Athletic\u2019s Murat Ates reported today<\/a> that Walton is \u201cexpected to skate soon.\u201d Walton suffered a concussion against Montreal, but is slowly working his way back into full fitness to play. The 19-year-old is a 2024 sixth-round pick who was one of the breakout stars of the 2024-25 OHL season, scoring 92 points in 66 games. Even before his injury, Walton was not considered a likely candidate to win an NHL roster spot in Winnipeg at this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning star goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy did not practice today, according to the Tampa Bay Times\u2019 Eduardo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[84446,741,49,48,76527,84447,448,7587,82,745,449],"class_list":{"0":"post-162855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-andrei-vasilevskiy","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-kieron-walton","13":"tag-mason-geertsen","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-snapshots","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","18":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}