Coyotes activate forward Zack Kassian

The Arizona Coyotes announced their lines for tonight’s contest against the Carolina Hurricanes, and as part of that announcement, they revealed that forward Zack Kassian had been activated off of injured reserve.

Additionally, the team announced that defenseman Juuso Valimaki will miss tonight’s game due to an upper-body injury, and his status is considered day-to-day.

Kassian, 31, has not played since earlier this month as he’s been dealing with a lower-body injury. He was placed on injured reserve just a short while ago to clear a roster spot, but since his injury happened earlier the placement was retroactive, meaning he could be activated today so soon after his official IR placement.

The bruising winger is a veteran of over 600 NHL games. He’s gotten into eight games so far this season, potting a single goal and zero assists in those games. Last year, Kassian scored six goals and 19 points in 58 games.

Kassian originally arrived in Arizona as part of a cap-dumping move at last year’s draft, a move that got the Coyotes a few draft picks as well as a short move up in the first round so the team could select Maveric Lamoureux.

He’s playing on a $3.2M cap hit and will become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2024.