Detroit’s defense corps is already shaken up considerably and they’ll now be missing another regular. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press notes that Trevor Daley is dealing with an upper-body injury and will not be available for tonight’s game in Anaheim; no further information about a potential return to action is available yet. He is the fourth regular out of their lineup, joining Mike Green, Jonathan Ericsson, and Niklas Kronwall and as a result, the Red Wings will be dressing four rookies on their back end as they wrap up their road trip. Detroit, although well into their LTIR allotment, still has enough cap space remaining to bring someone up if none of their players are close to returning.
More from the Atlantic:
- The Sabres will soon be facing a tough decision with center Johan Larsson soon, suggests Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. While he didn’t suit up today against Vegas, he’s close to returning from the lower-body injury he sustained in the preseason. However, Buffalo has a full roster and while they have a pair of waiver-exempt forwards in Tage Thompson and Casey Mittelstadt, it wouldn’t make sense to send one of them down to make room for Larsson. Accordingly, they’re going to have to decide if there’s still a place for the 26-year-old on the roster or if they’re going to need to try to either trade or waive him in the coming days. Larsson carries a $1.475MM cap hit and will be a restricted free agent next summer.
- Tampa Bay center Cedric Paquette was only able to participate in part of practice today. He left Saturday’s game early after having his glove stepped on but head coach Jon Cooper indicated to reporters, including Bryan Burns of the Lightning’s team website (Twitter link), that his injury isn’t too serious. The team is off until Thursday so there’s a chance that the 25-year-old may be back in the lineup without even missing a game.
- Canadiens center Jacob de la Rose returned to practice today for the first time since suffering a cardiac episode following their final preseason game last month, notes Postmedia’s Pat Hickey. However, he has not yet received the green light from doctors to resume playing so he’ll remain on injured reserve for now. Meanwhile, winger Nicolas Deslauriers is also skating on his own and Hickey suggests that the veteran could return to the lineup next week. With 14 forwards already on the roster, it appears as if Montreal will soon be facing a roster crunch.