Red Wings Assign Brogan Rafferty To Minors
- The Red Wings have assigned defenseman Brogan Rafferty to AHL Grand Rapids, the team said in a statement Friday. This is the sixth straight day that the 28-year-old Rafferty has been ferried between leagues. Detroit has brought up the minor-league mainstay on game days only to serve as last-minute injury insurance with Ben Chiarot sidelined with an undisclosed ailment. Rafferty has yet to play an NHL game this season despite his four recalls in January.
Red Wings Notes: Kane, Chiarot, Rafferty, Compher
Red Wings forward Patrick Kane was a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice, Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports. It’s his first time joining the team at practice since sustaining a lower-body injury against the Maple Leafs on Jan. 14, nearly a week and a half ago.
Per St. James, the Red Wings hope Kane can return to action in one of their three games before the All-Star break but are still unsure of an exact return timeline. The 35-year-old has been out with a lower-body injury – a concerning designation given his recent hip surgery – but the two don’t appear to be related. Since signing his one-year, $2.75MM deal with Detroit, Kane has assumed a top-six role and posted seven goals and 16 points in 19 games, much closer to the level of production expected from the future Hall-of-Famer at this stage in his career. The Red Wings, who have a slim lead on the Devils for the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, are 8-9-2 with a -9 goal differential in Kane’s 19 appearances this season.
Elsewhere from the Red Wings today:
- St. James also relays that defenseman Ben Chiarot is not practicing today as he remains out with an upper-body injury. He’s listed as day-to-day and has missed the last two games, most recently suiting up against the Hurricanes on Jan. 19. Chiarot, who’s rebounding somewhat after a ghastly defensive performance in his first campaign in Detroit, had averaged 19:31 per game and has 12 points in 45 contests. Given he isn’t yet ready to return to practice, he’ll likely miss tomorrow’s game against the Flyers. A day-to-day designation suggests he may return before the All-Star break, though.
- The carousel continues for depth defenseman Brogan Rafferty, who the Red Wings returned to AHL Grand Rapids today, per a team release. The 28-year-old hasn’t played for Detroit this season despite being recalled three times in the past two weeks, only serving as insurance given their minor injuries on the blue line. This is Rafferty’s fourth transaction in the last four days, and with Chiarot likely out for tomorrow’s contest, the Red Wings will likely recall him again.
- Also absent from practice today was center J.T. Compher, who head coach Derek Lalonde says is questionable for tomorrow against Philadelphia as he battles the flu. Compher has three points in his last three games after going pointless in six, bringing his total to 27 in 42 appearances during his first season in Detroit. His per-game pace is roughly the same as last year’s breakout performance with the Avalanche when he used his 52 points and 20:32 average time on ice to cash in with a five-year, $25.5MM commitment from the Red Wings in free agency.
Detroit Red Wings Recall Brogan Rafferty
- Prior to the team’s game tonight against the Dallas Stars, the Detroit Red Wings announced they had recalled defenseman Brogan Rafferty from their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. This being his third recall of the year, Rafferty has yet to play in a game for the Red Wings although he already has two goals and 15 points for the Griffins this season.
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Red Wings Assign Brogan Rafferty To AHL
- The Red Wings assigned defenseman Brogan Rafferty to AHL Grand Rapids this morning, according to a team announcement. Detroit recalled the 28-year-old yesterday to serve as injury insurance with Ben Chiarot out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury, but he did not dress in their win over the Lightning. Rafferty has served as a healthy scratch in four games this month as the team has shouldered short-term absences to Chiarot and Jake Walman on their back end. The offensive-minded blue-liner has struggled to adapt in his first season with the Red Wings organization, posting two goals, 13 assists and 15 points in 35 games with Grand Rapids after lighting up the league with 51 points in 72 games with AHL Coachella Valley last season.
Red Wings Recall Brogan Rafferty
- Before their game against Tampa Bay, the Red Wings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Brogan Rafferty from AHL Grand Rapids. It’s the second recall of the month for the 28-year-old although he didn’t see any NHL action in his first stint and barring injuries, it’s unlikely he’ll suit up much if at all this time around. Rafferty is in his first season with Detroit’s farm team after signing a two-year, two-way contract back in July. In 35 games so far with the Griffins, he has 15 points.
Injury Notes: Blackhawks, Red Wings, Engvall
The Chicago Blackhawks saw a string of players progress in their injury recovery, with Nick Foligno (fractured finger) and Ryan Donato (illness) fully returning to the team’s practice on Sunday, while Connor Bedard (jaw), Samuel Savoie (leg), and Tyler Johnson (undisclosed) were all on the ice for varying times before the team skate started. Connor Murphy was not able to take part in the team’s skate, though, continuing to miss time with a lower-body injury.
Donato has missed the Hawks’ last two games with an illness, while Foligno has sat out of seven games thanks to a placement on injured reserve earlier in the month. Both players are trending towards a return, finally bringing some form of relief to a Chicago lineup that’s currently experiencing injuries to 10 different players. Foligno went down on the same night that star rookie Bedard was injured. Both players falling out of the lineup effectively fractured Chicago’s top six, with the team going 3-4-0 – including one overtime and one shootout win – and scoring just 13 goals since the pair got hurt. That averages out to 1.85 goals-per-game – a mark that’s significantly held up by the two four-goal outings Chicago has had since Bedard’s injury.
Other notes from around the league:
- Ville Husso (lower-body) is continuing to progress in the Detroit Red Wings practices, while the team continues to be without Patrick Kane (lower-body) and Ben Chiarot (upper-body). Husso was placed on injured reserve in mid-December, missing Detroit’s last 14 games. James Reimer has slotted into the lineup as a result, backing up de facto starter Alex Lyon. Lyon has managed a .922 save percentage across 16 games, while Reimer has recorded an .893 save percentage in 13 appearances.
- Pierre Engvall has returned to the New York Islanders practice in a non-contact jersey after missing the team’s last two games with an upper-body injury. Engvall has managed 14 points in the 41 games he has appeared in, though he’s only scored one point since December 9th. Engvall is in his first full season with the Islanders, joining the team through trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs last season.
Red Wings Assign Brogan Rafferty To AHL
The Red Wings assigned defenseman Brogan Rafferty to AHL Grand Rapids today, per a team announcement. Rafferty, 28, was recalled last Saturday but did not see any game action with Detroit.
This indicates defenseman Jake Walman is likely ready to return from an illness that’s sidelined him for three contests. Walman’s absence necessitated Rafferty’s recall, allowing the Red Wings to remain at seven healthy defensemen on the active roster. In the event Walman is ready to return, he would likely reunite with Moritz Seider on the team’s top pairing against the Hurricanes tomorrow.
Patrick Kane Out With Lower-Body Injury
- After leaving the team’s game on Sunday night, Helene St.James of the Detroit Free Press reports that forward Patrick Kane will miss the next two games for the Detroit Red Wings with a lower-body injury. Although the head coach of the team, Derek Lalonde, has assured the media that the organization is not concerned with it being related to Kane’s previous hip issues, there still will be some caution from Detroit moving forward.
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Snapshots: Couturier, Drysdale, Red Wings, Nečas
The Philadelphia Flyers will be without Sean Couturier and Jamie Drysdale in their Monday night game against the St. Louis Blues, as they face an undisclosed injury and illness respectively. Both players also sat out of the team’s Saturday night win over the Winnipeg Jets. Bobby Brink and Marc Staal served as the duo’s replacements in Saturday’s 11-forward, seven-defensemen lineup, but the return of Noah Cates will push Staal out of Monday’s lineup.
Drysdale has only played two games with the Flyers since joining the team via trade with the Anaheim Ducks. He’s recorded an assist in both outings with Philadelphia, continuing what’s been a productive season for the third-year pro – with Drysdale boasting seven points in 12 games. The 21-year-old missed 29 games earlier in the season with a shoulder injury. The injury followed complicated contract negotiations with Anaheim, with Drysdale signing a new contract just nine days before the start of the season. He will now spend the three-year, $6.9MM deal with the Flyers.
More notes from around the league:
- The Detroit Red Wings have signed a three-year extension with ECHL affiliate the Toledo Walleye. Toledo began their affiliation with Detroit in the 2009-10 season and have proven productive, only missing the postseason three times since. This includes championship appearances in two of the last three playoffs. Toledo most notably served as the first professional coaching role for current Detroit head coach Derek LaLonde, who coached the Walleye from 2014 to 2016.
- Carolina Hurricanes forward Martin Nečas missed a fifth consecutive game on Monday as he’s recovering from an upper-body injury. He’s been replaced by Brendan Lemieux, who has yet to record a point since Nečas left the lineup. Nečas has 26 points of his own through 38 games.
Patrick Kane Will Not Return To Game Tonight
In tonight’s Original Six matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, an injury took place in the first period that may change the trajectory of Detroit’s season. Early on in the period, the Red Wings announced that forward Patrick Kane would not return to the game due to a lower-body injury.
The injury in question took place over two moments, with Pontus Holmberg delivering a solid body check to Kane along the boards, and Holmberg once again guiding Kane into a collision with the net in the Red Wings’ defensive zone.
Obviously, with the nature of the collisions, and Kane’s past injury history, Detroit’s main concern will be with Kane’s hip. Infamously, this past summer, Kane became one of a handful of players to undergo hip resurfacing surgery, delaying his eventual return to the NHL until December 7th.
If Kane is set to miss time away with this injury, it would be a tremendous blow to a Red Wings team that had just recently rebounded from a slow stretch in December. After a 2-8-1 showing in Kane’s first 11 games with Detroit, the team holds a 5-1-1 record in their last seven contests.
Since signing a one-year contract with the Red Wings back on November 28th, Kane has scored seven goals and 16 points in 18 games, with four of those points coming on Detroit’s powerplay. Although sitting 20th on the team in games played, Kane has climbed up to 14th on the team in scoring.
In Detroit’s view, there will be a lot of hope coming from the organization that Kane does not miss any action beyond tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs. However, although Kane has silenced many doubters in his return from hip resurfacing surgery, the poor track record of the surgery in the NHL still looms large.