Transaction Notes: Benson, Smith, Commesso

The Buffalo Sabres will have to wait a little longer for the return of their top prospects. As expected, Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio reported earlier that the organization placed forward Zach Benson on injured reserve to make room for Nicolas Aube-Kubel tonight.

Buffalo has been fairly vague regarding Benson’s timeline, but he has sat out the last two games and the team’s most recent practice with a lower-body injury. There is some indication the injury has plagued Benson for much of the regular season with the youngster going scoreless in six games to start the year.

Line rushes from yesterday morning indicated that Aube-Kubel will assume the left-wing role on the team’s second line where Benson should end up upon his return. The organization will likely make the IR placement retroactive to Benson’s last game on October 19th meaning he’s already eligible to be activated once fully healthy.

Other transactions:

• With their road trip ending tonight, it was inevitable that the Carolina Hurricanes would shorten their roster. The team has done just that announcing they reassigned defenseman Ty Smith to their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Smith has been with the team as a seventh defenseman for much of the road trip with his original recall coming on October 18th. Unfortunately for Smith, the team’s blue line was fully healthy during the road trip eliminating any chance for him to enter the lineup.
• Chicago Blackhawks netminder Arvid Soderblom has fully recovered from his illness meaning the team no longer requires goaltender Drew Commesso on the NHL roster. Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times reports the team has reassigned Commesso to their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs. It marked Commesso’s first call-up with the Blackhawks this season although he has yet to make his NHL debut. He’ll return to an IceHogs roster where he’s already played two games this season with a .854 save percentage.