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Alex Tuch

Wild Recall Alex Tuch, Waive Tyler Graovac

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Despite having the most points in their conference, the Wild have decided to shake up their roster. The team has announced that they’ve recalled top prospect Alex Tuch and winger Zack Mitchell from the Iowa Wild of the AHL. To make room on the roster, the team has placed forward Tyler Graovac on waivers and placed defenseman Jonas Brodin on the injured reserve (retroactive to January 18th).

Alex TuchTuch, who was selected 18th overall in the 2014 draft, will be receiving his second career cup of coffee. The 20-year-old appeared in three games for the Wild earlier this season, averaging a bit under 12 minutes per game. The talented offensive weapon failed to record a goal or assist during his brief cameo, but he has compiled 12 goals and 13 assists in 36 games for Iowa this season. Dane Mizutani of TwinCities.com notes that Tuch was practicing alongside first-liners Eric Staal and Nino Niederreiter during Monday’s practice.

Mitchell, 24, made his NHL debut earlier this season with the Wild, compiling zero points in 10 games. The former undrafted player has spent the past two-plus seasons with Iowa, and he’s compiled eight goals and six assists so far this season.

The team may have placed Graovac on waivers, but Mizutani notes that the squad is assuming that he’ll go unclaimed and ultimately land with Iowa. On the flip side, Jason Brough of Pro Hockey Talk writes that Graovac’s affordable contract (including a $625K cap hit for next season) could be enticing to some teams. The transaction is also an indication that the organization would like Charlie Coyle to get more reps at center.

The 23-year-old has spent much of the season on the Wild’s fourth-line, collecting three goals and one assist in only six games. Prior to this season, the 2011 draft pick has played in five games for the Wild between two seasons.

Brodin has missed the past 12 games as he’s recovered from a fractured finger. The former first-rounder was logging a career-low 19:47 minutes per game, but his offensive production was approaching career-highs. After having never finished with more than 19 points in his previous four seasons, Brodin had already scored three goals and provided 13 assists in 43 games this season.

Minor Transactions: 2/9/2017

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For the third consecutive day no players were placed on waivers, as Chris Johnston of Sportsnet noted this afternoon. However, that doesn’t mean teams aren’t busy calling players up from or sending players to the minor leagues. In this post we’ll track the day’s minor transactions and update as needed.

  • The Buffalo Sabres have announced (via Twitter) that they have recalled forwards Evan Rodrigues and Derek Grant from Rochester. Bill Hoppe of the Times Herald added that Zemgus Girgensons wasn’t on the ice for the team’s morning skate and while Evander Kane was, he didn’t take line rushes. The implication being both players might be unavailable tonight thus necessitating the call-ups. Rodrigues has appeared in two games this season, going scoreless while averaging 11:28 of ice time. Grant, who was recently reacquired via waivers from Nashville, has registered four points, all assists, in 41 games. He is still searching for his first NHL goal after seeing action in 81 games over parts of five seasons with Ottawa, Calgary, Buffalo and Nashville.
  • Winger Alex Tuch has been reassigned by the Minnesota Wild to their AHL affiliate in Iowa, the team announced this morning. Tuch, the club’s first-round pick, 18th overall, in the 2014 draft, has appeared in three games this season without netting a point. He’s registered 11 goals and 22 points in 34 AHL contests. Michael Russo of the Star Tribune tweeted that unless the team recalls another forward from the minor then it appears as if Charlie Coyle will move back to the wing with Erik Haula and Tyler Graovac assuming the third and fourth line center slots, respectively.
  • Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times brings word that the Tampa Bay Lightning have reassigned forwards Michael Bournival and Joel Vermin to Syracuse. Smith adds that this could be good news for Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn, as the reassignments leave the team with just 12 healthy forwards – Ryan Callahan is currently on IR. Palat has missed the last two games while Killorn didn’t play in Tampa’s 5 – 0 shutout win over the L.A. Kings.

Central Division Snapshots: Preds, Wild, Fabbri

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Nashville Predators GM David Poile is no stranger to making major trades. In the last 13 months alone, the veteran executive has completed two blockbuster one-for-one swaps, first acquiring center Ryan Johansen for defenseman Seth Jones then dealing longtime team captain Shea Weber to Montreal for fellow blue liner P.K. Subban. This propensity for making big moves leads Adam Vingan of The Tennessean to wonder whether Nashville will make another headline deal before the trade deadline.

Poile already picked up veteran fourth-line center Vernon Fiddler in a deal from New Jersey and the team has been linked to Colorado center Matt Duchene. But while the Predators could use more offensive flair at the pivot position, Poile is hesitant to sacrifice the one asset just about everyone else wants from him at this point: young defensemen. Poile already sacrificed Jones, who is enjoying a breakout campaign with Columbus, doesn’t seem interested in depleting his defense corps further: “We can’t be doing that all the time, or you won’t have one of the best defenses.” As Vingan notes, Poile will be listening but major trades are tough to pull off in-season so any moves the Preds do make are likely to be similar to the recent acquisitions of Fiddler and Cody McLeod.

Elsewhere in the Central Division:

  • As it stands, the Minnesota Wild are in a comfortable spot in the division, holding a four-point lead over second place Chicago and 15 points ahead of third-place Nashville. Barring an epic collapse, the team is virtually assured of hosting at least a first-round playoff series. As Michael Russo of the Star Tribune writes, this cushion will allow Wild bench boss Bruce Boudreau to experiment with his forward lines and defense pairs in order to help GM Chuck Fletcher better identify what the team’s needs are ahead of the deadline. For instance, Boudreau will slot Charlie Coyle, who has spent much of the season riding shotgun on Eric Staal’s line, at center for tonight’s game against Winnipeg with Alex Tuch moving into the lineup at wing. He’ll also have room to give Mike Reilly and Gustav Olofsson more playing time and if they perform well, it may give Fletcher the confidence needed to move one of the team’s top blue liners in a deal to both save cap space and to acquire help at other positions.
  • According to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Blues will for the time being look to internal options to replace Robby Fabbri, who the team just learned will miss the rest of the season with an ACL injury. In the wake of the injury, the team recalled forwards Kenny Agostino, who tallied just the second goal of his NHL career and the first in almost three years yesterday, and Magnus Paajarvi from Chicago of the AHL. The team will have three-plus weeks to figure out whether those two can adequately fill in before investigating the options available on the trade market. Regardless of how the ultimately choose to do so, replacing Fabbri won’t be easy. While he’s had an up-and-down season in 2016-17, the 21-year-old winger is an extremely skilled player and a key part of the team’s top-nine forward group.

Minor Transactions: 2/2/17

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Here is where we’ll keep track of today’s minor roster moves:

  • The Capitals announced that they’ve assigned center Chandler Stephenson back to Hershey of the AHL. Stephenson got into a trio of games with the Caps over the past week and a half, being held pointless while averaging 8:45 per night.  He has spent the bulk of the year at the AHL level, recording six goals and 18 assists in 41 games with the Bears.
  • With goalie Antti Raanta taking a leave of absence to be with his wife gave birth to their first child earlier today, the Rangers announced that they have summoned Magnus Hellberg from AHL Hartford. The 25 year old netminder has played in 26 games with the Wolf Pack, going 10-9-5 with a 2.86 GAA and a .906 SV%.
  • The Wild announced that they have recalled 2014 first round pick right winger Alex Tuch from Iowa of the AHL. Tuch is in his first professional season and has 11 goals and 11 assists in 34 games at the minor league level this season and has yet to play at the NHL level.  He also was named to the AHL All-Star game which took place late last month.
  • Anaheim has recalled defenseman Shea Theodore from San Diego (AHL), reports Eric Stephens (Twitter link). He has been back and forth plenty of times this season (this is recall number 12 for him) and has played in 25 games with the Ducks, scoring once while adding seven assists.  He has fared better offensively at the minor league level with nine points (1-8-9) in 13 contests with the Gulls.
  • Toronto has assigned center Frederik Gauthier back to the AHL’s Marlies, reports Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston (Twitter link).  Taking his place on the roster is center Ben Smith who had been out since late December with a hand injury.  Gauthier has played in 18 games with the Maple Leafs this season, picking up two goals and an assist while winning just over 51% of his faceoffs.  At the minor league level, he has a goal and three helpers in 17 contests.
  • The Devils announced (via Twitter) that they have recalled forward Joseph Blandisi from AHL Albany.  Blandisi spent half the season in the NHL last year, picking up 17 points (5-12-17) in 41 games.  However, he has yet to see action with New Jersey this season.  However, he has been productive with the AHL Devils this year scoring seven goals to go along with 16 assists in just 28 games.

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