The Blues announced that they have recalled goaltender Ville Husso from San Antonio of the AHL under emergency conditions. This comes on the heels of Carter Hutton missing practice today as he deals with a sore neck. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that Hutton went to a specialist and an update on his condition is expected on Thursday.
If St. Louis is going to be without Hutton for any extended period of time, that could deal a big blow to their postseason hopes. Jake Allen opened up the season as the starter but has struggled for the most part, posting his highest goals against average of his career (2.76) while Hutton has the lowest GAA (2.02) and highest save percentage (.934) among qualifying goaltenders. Heading into tonight’s games, the Blues are sixth in the Central Division and are three points out of a tie for the last Wild Card spot in the West.
More goalie notes from around the league:
- Penguins goaltender Matt Murray is making “significant progress” in his recovery from a concussion, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters, including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He has participated in at least part of practice for the second straight day although there is no firm timetable for his return to action. Sullivan added that they don’t have a set number of starts that they would like Murray to receive between now and the playoffs; including tonight’s game against the Rangers, Pittsburgh has a dozen games left this season.
- Antti Raanta’s injury issues this season are expected to play a role in talks as he and Arizona discuss a contract extension, Coyotes writer Craig Morgan reports in his latest piece for FanRag Sports. He has been unavailable for 35% of their games so far with five separate injuries (including the preseason) but has already established a new career-high in games played this year with 39. There’s no doubt that Raanta will land a considerable raise from the $1MM he’s currently getting but getting back into the lineup and holding down the starting workload the rest of the year may play a key role in how big that raise will be.
The blues pretty much got screwed by Jake Allen yet again. If his contract wasn’t so bad I’d say they buy him out. But I think Doug Armstrong and other higher ups have hope Jake Allen will return to his good start to the season. I just don’t see Allen being starting goalie anymore.
Remember his playoffs last year? Outstanding.
Helly in the Peg had a bad year the last two and look at him now.
Giving up on good goalies too quick can come back to bite you.
Pawtucket you have persuaded me to rethink about Jake Allen from my perspective of being a bad goalie. I think if Jake Allen feels calm and collected on the ice he’ll become his start of the season and first half form. There might be some more training to help him and Hutton being a veteran presence has its perks.