Ville Heinola’s shuffling on and off of the Vegas Golden Knights’ NHL roster continued today as the club announced they have recalled the defenseman once again from their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights. Heinola was first recalled to the NHL on Oct. 11, then reassigned back to the AHL on Oct. 14. He was recalled back to the NHL the very next day, and then reassigned again on Oct. 17. Now, he’s back on the NHL roster once again.

Despite the fact that Heinola is now being recalled for the third time in just over a week, he actually hasn’t yet made his Golden Knights debut. The former Winnipeg Jets top prospect signed a one-year, one-way league-minimum contract over the summer with the Golden Knights after becoming a Group VI unrestricted free agent. A left-shot puck-moving defenseman, Heinola is set to be among Vegas’ top call-up options on the blueline this season. He’s started off well at the AHL level, scoring five points in five games, and he’ll likely be hoping his frequent involvement in team transactions will result in an NHL game sometime soon.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

• Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund will be sidelined for tonight’s game against the Minnesota Wild after suffering an upper-body injury, reports Pat Steinberg of TSN. That will mark Backlund’s first absence of the 2026-27 campaign. On a young, rebuilding Flames team, Backlund has been one of head coach Ryan Huska’s most relied-upon players. The 37-year-old has only scored two points through eight games this season but averages 17:43 time on ice per game. That ranks second among all Flames forwards, and Backlund also leads all Flames forwards in short-handed time on ice per game. Expect secondary penalty kill contributors such as Joel Farabee, Yegor Sharangovich, and Martin Pospisil to see their minutes tick up while short-handed as a result of Backlund’s absence tonight.
• Chicago Blackhawks No. 1 defenseman Bowen Byram is “trending in the right direction” in his recovery from an upper-body injury, head coach Jeff Blashill told the media today. (via Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio) Blashill said Byram is still classified as day-to-day. The 25-year-old was a blockbuster trade addition by GM Kyle Davidson over the summer and is averaging the most minutes of any Blackhawk in the early portion of 2026-27. Through the first six games of his career in Chicago, Byram is averaging 24:42 time on ice per game, including 3:15 on the power play and 0:41 on the penalty kill.
• Nashville Predators head coach Andrew Brunette told the media today, including team reporter Brooks Bratten, that forward Mavrik Bourque is nearing a return from an upper-body injury that has kept him sidelined for the team’s last four games. The 24-year-old was one of the centerpiece additions of the Predators’ busy offseason, with Nashville trading two draft picks to acquire Bourque and veteran blueliner Ilya Lyubushkin. The Predators subsequently signed Bourque to a $5.5MM AAV contract extension. The 2020 first-round pick scored just one point in his first four games in Tennessee, but will have a chance to improve that pace if he can land a spot alongside one of Nashville’s veteran scorers.