Babchuk on IR, Brodie Recalled

The Calgary Flames placed defenseman Anton Babchuk on the Injured Reserve on Wednesday afternoon, after the Russian bomber broke his hand against the Minnesota on Tuesday night.  Depending on which bone was broken in his hand, Babchuk could be out upwards of 4-to-6 weeks, give or take, which means that the Flames needed to upkeep their depth on the blueline.

Also on Wednesday, the team recalled defenseman T.J. Brodie from the AHL, who will be given the chance to take the role that Babchuk was having trouble holding onto in the early part of the season.  With Babchuk being a healthy scratch on a number of occasions, Brodie will be under some strong scrutiny to start his stay early on, but some good performances, starting on Friday in Chicago.

In eight games this season, Babchuk has only posted 3 assists, which has been part of the reason why he had been scratched for five games already this year, he just hasn't been able to get the puck to the net and score some goals.  This injury to Babchuk will lower his fantasy value significantly and he'll likely still be on the shelf when the waiver draft hits, so I would imagine that he would be dropped from this pool and many others, when the chance is given.

In 12 games with the AHL's Abbotsford Heat, Brodie has 1 goal and 2 assists, but his youthful enthusiasm is likely what could cure what ails the Flames at this point in the season.

In the draft, this is a another hit to Scott G.'s team, which has been up and down on the injury front since the beginning of the regular season. Just when his team was about to be 100% healthy down the line, Babchuk gets hurt and now he's another man down and this time, it could be for a while.  Right now, Scott is among the week's low teams in production, with only 3 points through Wednesday and he now sits in 6th place, 9 points out of 3rd and 23 points out of 1st.

As for Brodie, he will get a couple of games to showcase his skill to everyone and he would then be available to everyone with a trade in the selection sheet pool, via trade in Box 14.  Just a little something to consider about now.