Detroit recalls three players from Grand Rapids and places three on injured reserve
Detroit recalls three players from Grand Rapids and places three on injured reserve
This morning, the Detroit Red Wings announced that they were placing J.T. Compher, Klim Kostin, and Dylan Larkin on injured reserve, while calling up Zach Aston-Reese, Jonatan Berggren, and Austin Czarnik from the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Per NHL rules, once a player is placed on injured reserve, they cannot compete for a minimum of seven days. To state the obvious, these injuries are ill-timed with Detroit set to play three games in the next four nights.
Detroit has not yet provided an official update on Larkin's injury beyond the fact that he was being evaluated after Saturday night's game, but given the severity of the injury, it's no surprise to seem him added to the IR. Now, it's official that he will be out through at least Saturday's game in Philadelphia.
In the lead-up to Saturday's game, Derek Lalonde described Compher as "day-to-day," but it's become clear his injury is more serious than initially expected. With his IR stint now retroactive to December 5th, he will be out until through tonight and tomorrow night's back-to-back.
Kostin, meanwhile, was initially described as having missed Saturday's game with an illness. For him to now also face a stint on IR (retroactive to December 7th), it seems he too is dealing with something a bit more serious than it initially appeared. He will be on IR through Thursday's game against Carolina.
In the stead of Compher, Larkin, and Kostin, Detroit has recalled Jonatan Berggren, Austin Czarnik, and Zach Aston-Reese.
Czarnik and Berggen have both already spent stints with the Red Wings this season, but Aston-Reese—who scored 14 points in 77 games last year for the Toronto Maple Leafs as a defensive specialist in the bottom six—is poised to debut for the club. Berggren is the recent subject of trade rumors, so it's possible that his forthcoming stint in Detroit will serve as something of an audition for a potential trade partner.
Kostin's absence shouldn't be diminished, and he is the exact player the Red Wings would have wanted in the lineup against a physical opponent that took a turn toward vengeance after Larkin's injury.
However, Kostin's injury will be easier to absorb than Larkin's and Compher's, because Detroit must now simultaneously replace both of its top two centers. As his team's captain and best player, Larkin is the unquestioned engine of the Red Wings, while Compher's versatility and reliability have made him a vital cog in Detroit's early season success. There's not a team in the NHL for whom losing both top six centers at once would be easy, and this team is no exception, even before you account for a likely suspension to David Perron.
With a difficult, busy schedule forthcoming, it now feels as though the Red Wings may be entering a defining week for the entire season. Detroit's playoff ambitions were always fragile because of the strength of the Atlantic Division. There was never going to be much margin for error from a team that, by its own admission, doesn't have the elite talent of some of its rivals.
At the moment, those playoff dreams are well within reach, but the Red Wings must now scrap and claw to keep those ambitions alive through a trying stretch of the schedule without several central contributors.
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