The Detroit Red Wings waived goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic on Sunday.

Nedeljkovic has a cap hit of $3 million. He's set to become an unrestricted free agent at the expiration of his contract following the 2022-23 campaign.

The 27-year-old has a .880 save percentage and a 4.09 goals-against average in nine appearances with the Red Wings this season. He's not played for Detroit since allowing five goals on 41 shots against the Florida Panthers on Dec. 8.

Nedeljkovic was assigned to the AHL on a conditioning loan on Jan. 4. He's made six starts with the Grand Rapids Griffins, posting a .920 save percentage and a 2.30 goals-against average. Nedeljkovic recorded a 27-save shutout on Saturday in the final game of his conditioning loan.

Detroit acquired the netminder from the Carolina Hurricanes in 2021 for a third-round pick and the UFA rights to Jonathan Bernier. Nedeljkovic had a .901 save percentage in 59 contests in his first season with Detroit.

Ville Husso has taken the Red Wings' starting job after signing a three-year contract with a $4.75-million cap hit in the offseason. The 27-year-old has a .902 save percentage in 29 appearances.

Detroit claimed 31-year-old Magnus Hellberg off waivers in November. He has played as Husso's backup while Nedeljkovic has been on his conditioning loan.

The Red Wings are sixth in the Atlantic Division with an 18-16-7 record.

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Thomas Chabot was frank when assessing his performance in a 7-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

"Especially for myself, I think it was probably one of the worst games I've ever played, personally," the Ottawa Senators defenseman said. "It happened, it's a game, but it's unacceptable for me. You've got to move on, (and) it's going to be a long night thinking about it."

Senators captain Brady Tkachuk also wasn't proud of his or Ottawa's play in the blowout.

"It's embarrassing," he said. "(We) just can't keep doing this. It's frustrating. I'm at a loss for words right now.

"I wouldn't even say we were looking for answers," he added. "We were just awful all night from start to finish. I don't think we had momentum shift on our side. They were just coming at us all game, (and) it was just unacceptable. That can never happen."

The Senators trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes before giving up two more goals in the second period and three in the third. Mikko Rantanen, Artturi Lehkonen, and Alex Newhook each buried a pair of tallies in Colorado's victory, with the latter two players adding an assist apiece. Brad Hunt potted the other marker.

Colorado only outshot Ottawa by four (33-29). Still, the victors controlled puck possession and converted one of their two power-play opportunities, while the Sens went 0-for-3 on the man advantage. The Avalanche also accounted for 57.49% of the game's expected goals and a 51.85% share of the scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Chabot's underlying numbers illustrate how poorly he played. The Senators controlled only 33.12% of the expected goals with him on the ice at five-on-five and a mere 23.53% share of the scoring chances. He had one giveaway and no takeaways in 23:13 of ice time.

To his credit, the 25-year-old ranks among the NHL's best in terms of his workload, averaging 25:59 of ice time to go along with 22 points in 37 games this season.

Colorado had lost seven of its previous eight games, including a humiliating 3-2 defeat to the league-worst Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday. The Avalanche have been without numerous impact players all season due to injuries.

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The Seattle Kraken may only be in their second season, but they've already etched their name into the NHL record books.

The Kraken became the first team in league history to sweep a road trip of seven or more games by defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 8-5 on Saturday.

Here's a closer look at Seattle's run:

The Kraken have outscored their opponents 37-15 during the heater. They also won or tied 18 of 21 periods.

Seattle won its last contest before taking off for the road trip. In total, the team has won eight games in a row, setting a new franchise record.

Jared McCann set the pace Saturday with the second hat trick in club history. The Kraken, who amazingly scored on six of their first seven shots in the contest, also received goals from Daniel Sprong, Matty Beniers, Andre Burakovsky, Eeli Tolvanen, and Oliver Bjorkstrand.

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The Boston Bruins signed forward Pavel Zacha to a four-year contract extension with a $4.75-million cap hit Saturday, the club announced.

The 25-year-old was set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the campaign.

Zacha has recorded five goals and 20 assists in 42 games with the Bruins this season. He's posted strong underlying numbers defensively in his first year in Boston.

Boston acquired him from the New Jersey Devils in the offseason in exchange for Erik Haula. The Devils drafted Zacha sixth overall in 2015.

Zacha has largely failed to live up to his lofty draft hype. His best season came in 2020-21 when he notched 17 goals and 35 points in 50 games.

The Bruins still have several pending UFAs, but none bigger than David Pastrnak.

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Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews will return to action Saturday against the Boston Bruins, he confirmed to TSN's Mark Masters.

Matthews has missed two games due to an undisclosed injury. The Maple Leafs defeated the Nashville Predators and lost to the Detroit Red Wings without him in the lineup.

The 25-year-old has 20 goals and 47 points in 41 games this season after winning the 2022 Hart Trophy.

Maple Leafs forwards Pontus Holmberg and Bobby McMann missed the team's morning skate due to illness and aren't expected to play against Boston, according to the Toronto Sun's Terry Koshan.

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The Vancouver Canucks are looking into how they dealt with Tanner Pearson's season-ending injury after teammate Quinn Hughes raised concern about the situation Thursday night.

Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre the club started an internal review Friday to find out exactly what happened with the veteran forward. Rutherford claims he didn't know there were any potential issues with Pearson's medical care until Hughes brought it up following a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.

"I feel bad for him. I mean, it wasn't handled properly, and you know, it's not really a good situation he's got there, and hopefully, he's going to be alright," Hughes said.

The blue-liner clarified the comments Friday.

"I wasn't trying to direct blame at anyone," Hughes said, according to MacIntyre. "I don't think it's really anyone's fault. It's just an unfortunate situation. But in a situation like that, of course, I care about my teammates and, you know, I hate to see a guy go through hell like that."

Rutherford added that upon hearing what Hughes initially said, the executive spoke to general manager Patrik Allvin and head coach Bruce Boudreau, both of whom also claimed to be unaware of any issues pertaining to Pearson aside from his multiple setbacks.

"At that point, I just started to gather information and talk to people that are involved and start to do an investigation as to what really happened," Rutherford said. "Other than that, I can't say a whole lot because we're dealing with the privacy of medical information.

"We take the situation very seriously. We certainly have to look at everything here when something like this happens, and we're going to continue to do that."

Rutherford said he plans to assemble those in the organization from management, the medical staff, and Pearson or his agent, Joe Resnick, on a conference call so everyone can be involved in the discussion.

Pearson will miss the rest of this campaign after having a third surgical procedure on his hand, the club announced on Allvin's behalf earlier Thursday. The 30-year-old was originally expected to be out for only four-to-six weeks after undergoing his first surgery on the ailment Nov. 10, one day after injuring his hand. Pearson then had a second one performed a month later after it didn't heal as planned.

He was limited to 14 games this season, collecting one goal and four assists. The Canucks acquired him in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins in February 2019. Pearson is under contract with Vancouver through 2023-24.

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