{"id":390409,"date":"2026-01-04T16:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/390409\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T16:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:13:10","slug":"morning-notes-mangiapane-sabres-spitznagel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/390409\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Notes: Mangiapane, Sabres, Spitznagel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, we covered reports<\/a> coming out of Edmonton that the Oilers were looking to move out a few forwards, with Andrew Mangiapane<\/a> and Noah Philp<\/a> specifically named as two likely candidates. Philp was claimed off of waivers by the Carolina Hurricanes later that day, while Mangiapane remains on the Oilers\u2019 roster, though he has been a healthy scratch for two of the last three games. Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman addressed<\/a> Mangiapane\u2019s situation last night, saying that the Oilers are \u201cdefinitely looking\u201d to see if there\u2019s a fit in terms of trading away Mangiapane.<\/p>\n

Mangiapane, 29, has five goals and 11 points through 40 games this season. Complicating his odds of being traded is his contract, which carries a $3.6MM cap hit and a term that extends through next season. During his days with the Calgary Flames, Mangiapane was, without question, worth that kind of cap hit. He hit the 40-point mark three times as a Flame, and even managed 35 goals and 55 points in 2021-22. While Friedman did note that some teams view Mangiapane\u2019s contract as a factor that could limit his chances of being traded, he also said that there are others who don\u2019t see that as \u201ca big deal.\u201d It should also be noted that Mangiapane\u2019s contract carries a full no-trade clause until June 15, meaning Mangiapane will need to sign off on any trade before the Oilers can deal him.<\/p>\n

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

The Buffalo Sabres\u2019 win streak came to an end last night, and their difficult loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets raised questions about whether the team is in need of defensive reinforcements to help it survive injuries to key players on their back end. The Athletic\u2019s Matthew Fairburn wrote yesterday<\/a> that the Sabres \u201cdon\u2019t have a lot of internal options [head coach Lindy Ruff] trusts.\u201d Fairburn added that as a result, getting additional defensive depth \u201cseems like a clear need that new general manager Jarmo Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen should be targeting on the trade market.\u201d While it\u2019s unlikely that means the Sabres will be shopping for high-end defensemen such as the Calgary Flames\u2019 Rasmus Andersson<\/a>, the injury situation in Buffalo does make the team a likelier candidate to pursue some additional defensive depth on the trade market.
\nThe Michigan Daily\u2019s Matthew Auchincloss reported yesterday<\/a> that freshman forward Teddy Spitznagel<\/a> has left the University of Michigan Wolverines program, a development that was later confirmed by the program. Spitznagel spent parts of three seasons with the USHL\u2019s Muskegon Lumberjacks before beginning his NCAA career, winning the Clark Cup last season. McKeen\u2019s Hockey\u2019s Brock Otten commented<\/a> on Spitznagel\u2019s Michigan departure, noting that Spitznagel could be a candidate to head to the OHL. If he decides to head to the OHL, he would be the second forward in recent years to depart Michigan mid-season to head to the OHL. Christian Humphreys<\/a>, a 2024 seventh-round selection of the Colorado Avalanche, left Michigan for the OHL after just 10 games played last season. He ended up scoring 33 points in 28 games for the Kitchener Rangers and has 13 goals, 46 points in 33 games there this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, we covered reports coming out of Edmonton that the Oilers were looking to move out a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5100],"tags":[1824,1107,229,5133,146,5,901,4,1108],"class_list":{"0":"post-390409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-andrew-mangiapane","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-sabres","11":"tag-buffalosabres","12":"tag-edmonton-oilers","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-ncaa","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sabres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115837717998453714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}