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Nashville Predators News
The Oilers have assigned Jordan Oesterle to Oklahoma City (AHL).

Oesterle, 22, had one assist in six games with the Oilers during his call-up. His return to the AHL suggests that Nikita Nikitin could be back in the lineup on Thursday in Pittsburgh. Oesterle heads back to the AHL where he has 21 points (6G / 15A) in 49 games on the Oklahoma City blue line.

Jordan Oesterle
Haula (upper-body) will not play on Thursday.

Haula was injured on an illegal hit to the head from John Moore on Monday. Moore was suspended five games for the hit and now Haula will miss his second game in a row. The Wild announced that he did not suffer a concussion, but he is clearly too sore the play, regardless of what the injury is. He is day-to-day.

Erik Haula
Haula (undisclosed) will not play on Tuesday.

Haula left Monday's game after being hit in the head by John Moore of the Rangers. The Wild announced that Haula has not been diagnosed with a concussion, but will still be held out for precautionary measures. Kyle Brodziak will be in the lineup for Haula.

Erik Haula
The Lightning have reassigned Jonathan Marchessault to Syracuse (AHL).

Marchessault played 12:33 and recorded one shot with a minus-1 rating in his Lightning debut on Saturday. With Marchessault heading back to Syracuse, expect J.T Brown and/or Alex Killorn to be back in the Lightning lineup on Tuesday. Marchessault has two goals and five assists in six games with the Crunch.

Jonathan Marchessault
The Lightning have recalled Jonathan Marchessault from Syracuse (AHL).

Marchessault, 23, had a hot start with Syracuse, scoring two goals with four assists (6 points) in the first five games. He has two games of NHL experience (with CBJ) but is expected to make his Lightning debut tonight with Ryan Callahan, Alex Killorn, JT Brown and Brett Connolly all sidelined with injuries.

Jonathan Marchessault
Forsberg skating with Mike Ribeiro and James Neal.

Forsberg scored his first goal of the season last night and has now recorded at least one point in the first three games of the season. He has one goal and three assists so far and should only continue to produce on the Predators top line with Ribeiro and Neal, who could use a jump-start (1G between the two of them). Forsberg is only owned in 19% of Yahoo! leagues and is definitely worth taking a look at in 12-team leagues.

Filip Forsberg
The Avalanche and Ryan O'Reilly avoid arbitration agreeing to terms on a two-year deal worth $12 million.

The Avalanche and O'Reilly have been working on a deal for awhile, and while it wasn't the long-term deal that O'Reilly was seeking, but the $6 million per year, is a huge raise for the 23-year-old. He had a great 2013-14 season, posting 28 goals and 36 assists (54 points) in 80 games. The most impressive thing for O'Reilly was he only took one minor penalty in the entire season. He will play a big role in the Avs' top-6 this season, where he will shoot for his first 30-goal season.

Ryan O'Reilly
Stamkos (leg) has been cleared to play and will be back in the lineup Thursday.

Stamkos has missed 45 games with fractured right tibia but his long awaited return will come on Thursday against the Sabres. This has to feel like the best trade deadline acquisition for the Lightning. Stamkos was excellent before getting hurt. He scored 14 goals and nine assists (23 points) in 17 games. He is a tremendous athlete and will probably be able to pick-up right where he left off.

Steven Stamkos
The Wild have recalled Erik Haula from Iowa (AHL).

Haula, 22, has two goals and two assists in 15 games so far in his rookie season for Minnesota. He was sent back to Iowa to continue playing during the break, falling shy of the NHL-mandated guideline of playing in 16 of the 20 games before the break which would have left him ineligible to return to Iowa.

Erik Haula
Stamkos (leg) hopes the full clearance will come on Monday when he has his next round of X-rays to determine if he will be able to return to the lineup on Thursday in Nashville.

After the brief rest, Stamkos returned to the ice last week along with the rest of his non-Olympian teammates looking as good as ever 14 weeks after suffering a broken right tibia. Though he pushed hard to be ready to return before the break and represent Canada at the Olympics, a CT scan performed on Feb. 5 revealed the bone was not quite healed enough to clear his return. "It did feel good (on Feb. 5), but it feels even better now," Stamkos said. "Maybe I wasn't as far along as I thought, knowing how much better it has felt now that I have kept working on it and taking a couple of days off. It's just going to continually get better, and that's positive knowing it's doing that.''

Steven Stamkos
Stamkos will not be able to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Stamkos underwent a CT Scan (which offers a three-dimensional view of the bone) this afternoon and then met with Lightning Medical Director Ira Gutentag, who was unable to clear Stamkos for game participation at this time. Rehabilitation with the Lightning training staff will continue and he will be reevaluated in 2-3 weeks.

Stamkos fractured his right tibia on November 11 in a game against the Boston Bruins and he subsequently had surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital to place a titanium rod in the tibia. He has missed 39 regular season games to this point. "Today is obviously very disappointing for me," Stamkos said. "I honestly believe that we did everything possible in order to have my injured leg ready in time for the Olympics, but I realize you can't force healing.

Steven Stamkos