Jesperi Kotkaniemi is a healthy scratch Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets in order to rest, Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien told reporters pregame.

"You see the fatigue in his game," Julien said. "So, having been through a long season, for an 18-year-old (this is) totally normal. We need to win hockey games here, we need to try and put our best lineup together, and hopefully giving him some rest will give him an opportunity to finish strong here in the next few games coming up."

It's the third time this month that Kotkaniemi has served as a healthy scratch.

He has chipped in 34 points in 76 games, but has no goals with just two assists in his last 11 contests.

Saturday night's game is crucial for the Canadiens as they continue to pursue the Blue Jackets. Columbus currently occupies the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot with the same point total as Montreal but with a game in hand.

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Dustin Byfuglien is ready to go.

The Winnipeg Jets will have the imposing defenseman in the lineup Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens, Jets head coach Paul Maurice confirmed pregame.

Maurice said Byfuglien will be eased back onto the second power-play unit.

The 34-year-old blue-liner has been out since Feb. 14 with an ankle injury.

Byfuglien leads the Jets in average ice time at 24:26, albeit in a smaller sample size. He has collected 30 points in 37 games.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to give one of their defensive prospects a look down the stretch.

Calle Rosen will join the club in New York ahead of Monday's contest against the Islanders, Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock told reporters, including TSN's Mark Masters, on Saturday.

Babcock's plan is to have Rosen in the lineup until injured blue-liner Jake Gardiner returns, according to Masters.

Rosen has racked up 46 points in 54 games with the Toronto Marlies this season, in his second campaign with the Leafs' AHL affiliate.

The Leafs signed the 25-year-old to a two-year contract extension in December.

Toronto will face the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.

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Nick Schmaltz has agreed to a new seven-year deal with the Arizona Coyotes, the club announced Saturday.

The contract extension carries a $5.85-million average annual value, or $40.95 million in total, The Athletic's Craig Morgan reports.

Schmaltz has been out since December with a knee injury. The 23-year-old collected 14 points in 17 games before being forced out of the lineup.

He was acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks in November for forwards Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini.

The Blackhawks selected Schmaltz with the 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft.

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Mark Giordano, Robin Lehner, and Corey Crawford are among the 2018-19 nominees for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

The Calgary Flames defenseman, New York Islanders goaltender, and Chicago Blackhawks netminder are among 31 players selected by the corresponding chapters of the Professional Hockey Writers Association for the award that recognizes the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.

Giordano is having the best season of his career at the age of 35 and is the heart and soul of a resurgent Flames club. He's also likely to be a Norris Trophy finalist as one of the top blue-liners in the NHL.

Lehner has overcome addiction, a bipolar disorder diagnosis, and opened up in September about having suicidal thoughts last season. The 27-year-old Swede enters Saturday's games with a .926 save percentage, and he's helped the Islanders defy expectations by fighting for the Metropolitan Division crown.

Crawford returned to action in late February after suffering his second concussion in the last two seasons. He missed most of the 2017-18 campaign and more than two months of 2018-19, but has helped the Blackhawks make a late-season playoff push this spring. He came into Saturday's schedule with an 8-4-1 record and a .921 save percentage since his return.

Here's the full list of the nominees from each club:

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The Vegas Golden Knights and St. Louis Blues officially clinched playoff spots with the Arizona Coyotes' shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night.

St. Louis' turnaround is one for the history books, as the team sat dead last in the NHL on Jan. 3. The Blues are 25-9-4 since that date, miraculously salvaging their season and moving within four points of the Central Division lead following Friday's action.

The Blues head back to the playoffs for the seventh time in the last eight years after missing out by a single point last season.

Vegas enjoyed a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season, but it won't be a surprise if the league's youngest franchise makes a deep playoff push in its second year.

The Golden Knights have rolled through the competition since adding Mark Stone at the trade deadline, posting a record of 10-4-1.

With the Blues and Golden Knights clinching, only two playoff spots remain up for grabs in the Western Conference.

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A change of scenery has done wonders for Robin Lehner.

After being non-tendered by the Buffalo Sabres last year, Lehner is enjoying a career season with the New York Islanders after signing a one-year, $1.5-million contract this summer.

Lehner is in a clear state of mind after his alcohol and sleeping pill addiction, as well as his bipolar disorder, almost led to his own suicide. While those are certainly contributing factors to his performance, Lehner credited his new organization - and atmosphere - for his turnaround.

“It’s a different feeling this year in general,” Lehner told Newsday's Andrew Gross. “We’re having fun. It’s a positive atmosphere. It’s not surrounded by negativity. That was one of the hard things when I was in Buffalo, just this cloud and atmosphere of negativity.”

The New York media market has a reputation of being hard on athletes, but Lehner claims it's a cakewalk compared to Buffalo.

“No, Buffalo prepared me,” Lehner said. “It couldn’t be any worse. Buffalo would prepare me to go to Toronto. It was so bad there sometimes. You would walk out to games and the game hadn’t started and people are already booing. It’s an incredibly passionate fan base and they’re filling that building but it can be miserable in that rink."

Now, Lehner may need to begin clearing his trophy shelf. He's New York's nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy, but he could also take home the Jennings Trophy along with fellow Islanders netminder Thomas Greiss.

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Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog was back in the lineup Friday against the Arizona Coyotes after missing nine games with an upper-body injury, the team announced.

Landeskog was originally given a four-to-six-week timetable on March 8.

The Avalanche hold the Western Conference's second wild-card spot, with the Coyotes just two points behind.

Landeskog was playing his best hockey prior to the injury, tallying 33 goals and 69 points - both career highs - in 68 games.

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