Robby Fabbri Returns To Practice
Sam Gagner’s contract with the Edmonton Oilers has officially been registered today and the 34-year-old was called up by the team to their NHL roster (CapFriendly). The move coincided with winger Adam Erne clearing waivers and being assigned to the club’s AHL affiliate the Bakersfield Condors. Gagner will begin his third stint with the Oilers after missing the end of last season and training camp with a hip injury.
The former sixth overall pick played three AHL games last week picking up a goal and four assists while driving a lot of the offense for the Condors. The Oilers will be looking for him to provide depth scoring for a lineup that has appeared top-heavy this season. Gagner has been a solid offensive contributor throughout his career despite bouncing around the league to seven different teams during his 16-year NHL career.
For Erne, he returns to the AHL after going scoreless in six games for the Oilers this season. The 28-year-old split last season between the NHL and AHL in the Detroit Red Wings organization. He posted five points in nine AHL games last season while registering eight goals and 10 assists in 61 NHL games.
In other evening notes:
- Dallas Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine is reporting that Stars forward Radek Faksa will miss tonight’s game with what is being described as an upper-body injury. Faksa skated with the team yesterday before leaving on their road trip and by all accounts seemed fine. No word yet on what has changed between then and now or any specifics on the ailment. Faksa is off to a slow start offensively this season with no points in seven games, however the Stars are off to a torrid 5-1-1 start thanks in part to Faksa’s penalty killing and defensive acumen.
- Detroit Hockey Now writer Kevin Allen is reporting that Robby Fabbri of the Detroit Red Wings returned to practice today and could be coming off the injured reserve sooner rather than later. Fabbri is ahead of schedule according to Allen but will still miss the Red Wings next two games. The 27-year-old has dressed in just a single game this season and has one goal thus far. He has been sidelined with a lower-body issue but could return next week against the New York Rangers or Montreal Canadiens.
Austin Czarnik Sent To Grand Rapids, Carter Mazur Activated From SOIR
- CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that the Red Wings have assigned forward Austin Czarnik to AHL Grand Rapids. The 30-year-old has played in eight games this season, picking up a single assist while logging just under 10 minutes a game. The move puts Detroit at just 18 healthy skaters which isn’t likely viable so a recall – likely Czarnik – will come in advance of Thursday’s game against Florida. Once Czarnik plays in ten games or is on the roster for 30 days, he’ll need to clear waivers again so this transaction stops the clock on the latter counter for now.
- Still with Detroit, the Red Wings announced that they have activated forward Carter Mazur from season-opening injured reserve and assigned him to Grand Rapids. The 21-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in the opening game of Detroit’s prospect tournament back in September. Mazur spent most of last season in college with Denver but managed to get in six games with the Griffins down the stretch where he had six points. Because Mazur wasn’t on Detroit’s roster last season, there was no cap charge for his SOIR placement.
Jonathan Berggren Sent To AHL
- The Detroit Red Wings have sent Jonatan Berggren to the AHL. The winger has played two games this season, going without a point. He played his rookie season last year, totaling 67 games and 28 points.
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Prospect Joren Van Pottelberghe To Sign Three-Year Deal With Lugano
- Red Wings prospect Joren van Pottelberghe is expected to sign a three-year deal beginning next season with HC Lugano in the Swiss League, reports Watson’s Klaus Zaugg. The 26-year-old was a fourth-round pick back in 2015 (110th overall) but has yet to sign with Detroit. As the NHL doesn’t have a direct player transfer agreement with Switzerland, the Red Wings will continue to hold his rights indefinitely. He has a 2.49 GAA and a .914 SV% over parts of eight seasons in Switzerland’s top division so it’s possible Detroit will want to bring him over one day but that might be a little further down the road now.
Latest On Jeff Petry
Detroit Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde told the media, including MLive’s Ansar Khan, that veteran defenseman Jeff Petry is healthy and will play in tomorrow’s game in Boston. Petry has been out with a lower-body injury and has not played since October 21st.
Petry’s return to the Red Wings lineup again puts into focus the logjam of quality defensemen the team is currently dealing with. With Petry healthy, a veteran such as Justin Holl or Olli Määtta would need to exit the lineup in order for Petry to play. Petry himself has been a healthy scratch at times this season, and it’s possible this impressive blueline depth and the ability for Lalonde to rotate his defensive lineup has helped contribute to Detroit’s stellar start to the season.
Jeff Petry Out Day-To-Day With Lower-Body Injury
- Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry did not skate this morning and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, according to Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde. Petry, 35, was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins (via the Montreal Canadiens) this offseason and has thus far skated in four games for the Red Wings. The Red Wings’ defensive depth is an area of strength, so while Petry’s injury is definitely unfortunate, the Red Wings are well-equipped to survive in his absence.
Klim Kostin Out Day-To-Day With Injury
- Detroit Red Wings forward Klim Kostin also missed Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury and is considered day-to-day. He’s played in four games this season, failing to record a point and tallying seven penalty minutes. Jonatan Berggren slotted into Kostin’s lineup spot, only recording one shot on the stat line in 13-and-a-half minutes of ice time. Kostin is on a newly signed, two-year contract that carries an annual average value of $2.0MM.
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Detroit Red Wings Recall Jonatan Berggren
Monday: After the team’s back-to-back wins over the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames this weekend, CapFriendly is reporting that the Red Wings have loaned Berggren back to the Griffins.
Friday: Earlier today, it was reported that Detroit Red Wings forward, Robby Fabbri, would miss the next four weeks with a lower-body injury. As Fabbri will now land on the injured reserved for the team, the Red Wings announced that they have recalled forward Jonatan Berggren from the Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.
This confirms an earlier report from Kevin Weekes of ESPN, who indicated that Berggren would likely replace Fabbri once the injury news became public. After spending most of last year in the NHL with Detroit, Berggren will get the opportunity to stay with the team long-term, after surprisingly not making the team out of training camp earlier this month.
Becoming one of the sneakier draft choices made towards the end of the Ken Holland era for the Red Wings, Berggren has excelled at every level since being drafted by Detroit in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft. In his last season playing for Skellefteå AIK of the SHL back during the 2020-21 season, Berggren impressed with 12 goals and 33 assists in 49 games played. Next season, making his professional debut in North America, Berggren would score 21 goals and 43 assists in 70 games for the Griffins, leading the team in points during his rookie campaign.
Last year, after getting off to a point-per-game start in the AHL, Berggren would get the call-up to Detroit, staying with the team for the rest of the season (minus a week stint in the AHL in February). In his rookie season, Berggren would score 15 goals and 13 assists in 67 games played, relatively modest numbers in hindsight, but it was good for ninth on the team in scoring.
Coming into this year, Berggren would have seemed like a relatively easy choice to make the Red Wings roster out of camp, but over the offseason, the team added six new forwards into the mix through trades and free agency, as well as the return of both Fabbri and Michael Rasmussen to start the season. Although not a star-studded roster by any means, Detroit has become a relatively deep team over the last few seasons.
Robby Fabbri Out Four Weeks With Lower-Body Injury
The Detroit Red Wings have announced that forward Robby Fabbri will be out for four weeks with a lower-body injury. The team also clarified that this injury is not related to Fabbri’s knee, which is notable as Fabbri’s knee has been the cause of significant injury troubles in the past.
Fabbri has not appeared on the ice for the Red Wings since the team’s season-opening loss to the New Jersey Devils on October 12th. Fabbri’s absence was originally believed to only be for a single game, but seeing as Fabbri failed to return to the ice it seems that original projection may have been too optimistic.
Fabbri’s one game so far this season was spent on the Red Wings’ second line alongside Lucas Raymond and offseason signing J.T. Compher.
Although he only played in 28 games last season, Fabbri scored at a 47-point pace. There was some hope that the 27-year-old, who is making $4MM against the cap through 2024-25, would be in line for a potential career-best season on a top-six line with Compher and Raymond. The Red Wings will now have to wait to see if those hopes will end up materializing into actual production, though, as Fabbri will be out of commission into the middle of November.
As for how the Red Wings have fared in Fabbri’s absence, Derek Lalonde’s squad has collected three consecutive wins and has scored 16 goals in that span of time. While a healthy Fabbri would hardly have hurt the team’s offensive attack, the Red Wings look well-positioned to remain highly competitive despite losing Fabbri.
Fabbri Expected Back This Weekend
- Seemingly losing game time to injury every season, Robby Fabbri of the Detroit Red Wings has already missed two games with an undisclosed injury early on this season. According to Ansan Khan of MLive, Fabbri shouldn’t be out too much longer, as the team is looking to have him back in the lineup this weekend as they take on the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames. In the same report, Khan also noted that defenseman Jeff Petry is also expected to be back in the lineup tomorrow night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but would not elaborate on what defenseman would sit in his place.
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