As we come to the end of another interesting week in the NHL, things are heating up in the rumor mill and on the ice. We’re close to a quarter of the season gone already, and teams are starting to fight tooth and nail for every inch of ice and every point in the standings. As we saw last night, any team can win on any given night, as Arizona took down Montreal, Colorado walloped Washington, and Vegas continued their golden start with a win over Vancouver.
As always, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves teams complete today as they try to squeeze every drop of value out of the fringes of their roster.
- The Detroit Red Wings were down to just six defensemen with Luke Witkowski suspended ten games and Danny DeKeyser still dealing with injury. To give them some insurance they’ve recalled Brian Lashoff from the Grand Rapids Griffins, a familiar face to Detroit fans. Lashoff has spent his entire career in the Red Wings organization, playing 122 NHL games while also competing for the Griffins every year. The big-bodied defenseman doesn’t provide much offensively, but can slide onto a bottom-pairing without much difficulty.
- After clearing waivers, the Columbus Blue Jackets have assigned Zac Dalpe to the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. Dalpe was waived yesterday when deemed healthy enough to play again, and was activated from injured reserve just before his new assignment. The veteran forward will have to wait for his next opportunity in the NHL, but has experience with the Monsters from a year ago. In 20 games for Cleveland down the stretch, he scored 15 points and should be a key part of their offense again.
- With Chris Wideman set to miss the next several weeks, the Ottawa Senators have brought back defenseman Ben Harpur from Belleville of the AHL. This will mark his third stint with Ottawa this season; he has suited up in three NHL games so far while playing in four minor league contests. The Sens already had six other defenders on the roster so Harpur is likely to be scratched at times which might explain why they chose him over top prospect Thomas Chabot.