Mike Babcock raised some eyebrows on Thursday when asked to assess his team so far this season.

"Obviously (I'm) ecstatic," the Toronto Maple Leafs head coach told reporters, including TSN's Mark Masters. "Any way you look at it, we've (gotten) off to a good start. We think our team's going to get better. We have significant pieces not here and they will be here."

That may have simply been optimism, or just a prediction rather than an update. Either way, Babcock was clearly referring to holdout William Nylander and the injured Auston Matthews.

"So we'll be a deeper team (with them), but in the meantime, we've been allowed to grow players and create depth in (our) organization, which is important," the bench boss added.

Nylander and the Leafs have until Dec. 1 to resolve their stalemate before the forward is forced to miss the rest of the season. The 22-year-old has yet to report because he doesn't have a contract.

Toronto is comfortable going without Nylander for the entire campaign if no deal is reached by the deadline, as Sportsnet's Chris Johnston reported on Saturday.

Matthews, meanwhile, has been out since Oct. 27 with a shoulder injury.

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The Ottawa Senators have dealt defenseman Chris Wideman to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for a sixth-round selection in the 2020 draft.

The pick was previously acquired by the Oilers from the St. Louis Blues in the deal for blue-liner Jakub Jerabek on Oct. 1.

Wideman ranked seventh in average ice time among Ottawa blue-liners in 2018-19. He ultimately lost minutes to Thomas Chabot, Maxime Lajoie, Dylan DeMelo, and Ben Harpur - all younger players on the back end.

He collected five points in 19 games with the Senators this season and spent all three of his previous campaigns with Ottawa, which drafted him 100th overall in 2009.

The 28-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent who signed a one-year, $1-million contract with the Senators this past June.

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Kristian Vesalainen is heading back to Finland.

The Winnipeg Jets are sending the 19-year-old forward from the AHL's Manitoba Moose to Finnish KHL club Jokerit, the team announced Thursday.

Vesalainen played the first five games of the season with the Jets before being sent down to Manitoba. Winnipeg recalled the winger on Nov. 16 and reassigned him Nov. 20.

An out clause in Vesalainen's contract allowing him to leave for Europe kicked in Saturday. Jokerit acquired his KHL rights in a trade with SKA St. Petersburg on Nov. 15.

The 24th overall pick in last year's draft produced eight points in eight AHL games and added one assist in his first five NHL contests.

Vesalainen will be eligible to return to the Jets once the KHL season concludes in April.

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The Montreal Canadiens' blue line could get a big boost next week, as Shea Weber might make his season debut on Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes, head coach Claude Julien said Thursday.

Weber hasn't played since Dec. 16 of last season due to foot and knee injuries. The veteran blue-liner was productive in limited action during the 2017-18 season, collecting 16 points in 26 games.

With fellow defenseman Noah Juulsen out indefinitely due to a facial fracture, Weber's return would come at an ideal time for the Canadiens.

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The Calgary Flames placed forward Michael Frolik and defenseman Michael Stone on injured reserve Thursday, the team announced.

Frolik is dealing with a lower-body injury and will not travel with the team on its two-game road trip. He missed the Flames' tilt against the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday. Frolik has seven goals and no assists in 20 games this season.

Stone, meanwhile, is dealing with a blood clot and there is no timetable for his return. He's appeared in just one game since Oct. 25, as rookies Juuso Valimaki and Rasmus Andersson have solidified themselves as Calgary's third defense pairing.

The Flames lead the Pacific Division with a 13-8-1 record.

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Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray will be out "longer-term" due to a lower-body injury, head coach Mike Sullivan said Thursday.

Murray has been placed on injured reserve, the team announced.

"This was not something that we expected," said Sullivan, according to Josh Getzoff of PensTV. Sullivan added Murray has been dealing with the ailment for "a couple of weeks."

The two-time Stanley Cup champion has struggled to keep the puck out of his net this season, sporting an .877 save percentage and a 4.08 goals-against average in 11 games.

Casey DeSmith has been the more effective goalie for the Penguins with a .924 save percentage and a 2.39 goals-against average through 13 appearances.

Pittsburgh has recalled Tristan Jarry from the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an emergency basis.

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The clock is ticking for the Ottawa Senators to move forward on their plan for a new downtown arena.

The Senators and Trinity Group - the team's partner in the prospective redevelopment of downtown neighborhood LeBreton Flats - told the National Capital Commission earlier this month that they've "not been able to resolve their internal partnership issues," NCC board members heard during a public meeting Thursday, according to CBC.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, a non-voting member of the NCC board, called the development "disappointing" and said the Senators and Trinity Group must "get their acts together."

Senators owner Eugene Melnyk implied Thursday that his goal hasn't changed.

"We've championed a downtown sports and entertainment arena and this important civic project since initiating our proposal in 2014. We continue to be committed to making our vision a reality," he said in a statement, according to The Athletic's Chris Stevenson.

The NCC announced on Jan. 25 that it signed an agreement in principle with RendezVous LeBreton - whose main partners are Melnyk and Trinity executive chairman John Ruddy - for the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats, where the hockey team wants to build a new arena.

On Thursday, the NCC said it will give the Senators and Trinity Group until their next meeting in January to resolve their problems. Otherwise, the board will begin looking for other groups to take over the project.

"We have given the partners one last time to come together," Watson said, adding that the relationship between Melnyk and Ruddy is "challenging."

The NCC also said it knew in the planning stage that having one side work alone on the redevelopment would not be possible.

The Senators currently play at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario, which is located about 25 minutes west of downtown Ottawa. However, that travel time can extend to 45 minutes during rush hour, and the location's hurt the team's attendance over the years.

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After one game behind the Edmonton Oilers' bench, new head coach Ken Hitchcock is already in awe of Connor McDavid.

"His recovery rate, cardio-wise, is astounding," Hitchcock told TSN's Frank Seravalli. "He's able to get back up to speed quickly. That's something we've got to take advantage of. He can come out every second shift if it stays five-on-five."

McDavid is averaging the third-most minutes among NHL forwards at 22:18 per game, and on Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks in Hitchcock's debut, he logged 23:57.

However, additional ice time isn't the only way the veteran coach plans to get his best player more involved.

"He needs to have the puck more," Hitchcock said. "As do all of our centers, because that's the strength of the team. I think we need to find ways to get them the puck more deeper (in the defensive zone). That's going to be the focus starting at practice."

Despite McDavid leading the NHL in controlled zone entries each of the past two seasons, Hitchcock also plans to "double" his touches.

"That's what we want to do, get way more touches for our whole center ice," Hitchcock said.

The Oilers have a shortage of mobile puck-movers on the back end, so using McDavid and second-line center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as focal points on breakouts may be the remedy to that issue.

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