Minor Transactions: 11/10/17

The NHL is set to open their series in Sweden in just a few hours, with the Colorado Avalanche taking on the Ottawa Senators. The games have a bit more significance now that Matt Duchene will take on his former team immediately following the trade, while Samuel Girard will suit up for the first time as an Avalanche. There are six other games around the league too, including the Penguins and Capitals rehashing an old rivalry, and the Bruins and Maple Leafs starting a back-to-back series. We’ll keep track of all the minor moves around the league right here. Make sure to refresh or bookmark this page for the day.

• The Dallas Stars have recalled Curtis McKenzie from the AHL to help them up front. The Stars have a few forwards—Tyler Pitlick, Radek Faksa, and Brett Ritchie—still on the shelf, and have had to play Jamie Oleksiak up front in recent games. Their biggest impediment was the salary cap, as the team is right up against it just a few weeks into the season. Banking some room with fewer than 23 men on the roster has allowed for this call-up, but as NHL.com correspondent Sean Shapiro explains for Wrong Side Of The Red Line, it has also limited who exactly they could recall. McKenzie had 16 points in 53 games for the Stars last season.
• The Montreal Canadiens have recalled goaltender Zach Fucale on an emergency basis after Al Montoya suffered an upper-body injury. It’s not clear when the injury happened as Montoya didn’t start last night for the Canadiens, who instead are riding Charlie Lindgren with Carey Price out. Now Lindgren will be asked to keep his run going, as he’s the most tenured goaltender on the team. Fucale is a promising goaltending prospect, who was selected in the second round in 2013 and has been playing for the Laval Rocket this season. Montreal plays the Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night.
• With Alex Stalock returning to the Minnesota Wild after the birth of his second child, Niklas Svedberg has been sent back to the Iowa Wild. Svedberg was just up on emergency recall in case something happened to Devan Dubnyk.
• The Arizona Coyotes have assigned Mike Sislo to the AHL after failing to get into a game with the team. Sislo is not waiver-exempt, however last cleared in late September. Remember, players are eligible to be sent back down to the minor leagues without waivers if they haven’t spent a cumulative 30 days on the NHL active roster (or played in 10 games) since clearing waivers. Sislo only came up on Tuesday.
• Mark Alt has been sent back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, hopefully indicating that Nolan Patrick is close to returning for the Philadelphia Flyers. Patrick has been out with a concussion for the last six games, but has been skating on his own recently and progressing towards a return. The next game Patrick plays will burn a year of his entry-level contract, but that doesn’t seem to be a concern at this point.
• The Vancouver Canucks have returned Reid Boucher to Utica of the AHL just three days after recalling him.  He didn’t get into a game with the team while he was up.  Boucher has seen action in ten minor league games this season, tallying three goals and seven assists in ten games.