Saturday, November 02, 2013

Carter to the IR, Toffoli Up

A big surprise and a big mystery on Friday was the injury to Los Angeles Kings forward Jeff Carter, who was seen walking around with a walking boot on. With glimpses of the scoring forward injured, the team announced that he will be headed to the Injured Reserve, for an undetermined amount of time, with a lower-body injury.

Heading to the IR means that Carter will be out for at least the next week, which doesn't bode well for the Kings.  In 14 games this year, Carter has scored 5 goals and added 4 assists, not bad numbers for the scoring forward, but not great, of course.  Unofficially, I have him ranked 107th in scoring, heading into Saturday's action.

With the injury and defenseman Keaton Ellerby placed on waivers on Friday (claimed by the Jets on Saturday), two spots opened up on the Kings roster.  Tyler Toffoli and Linden Vey were called up from Manchester of the AHL and it sounds like they will both join the line-up on Saturday, as they host the Nashville Predators.

ImplicationsTwo points of note here... Cindy S. has Carter this season, having him picked in the 6th round, 136th overall. Leading up to the injury, she was getting good value out of the pick, given that he is up in the scoring race, compared to his selection. Cindy goes into Saturday down three players: Carter, Ryan Callahan (who may be getting close to a return) and Saku Koivu, so her position in 16th is not necessarily safe.

John S. thought it would be awfully clever to pick up Toffoli in the last round of the draft, 329th overall, but his immediate demotion to the minors before the season started let the air out of his tires there.  Toffoli's demotion to the minors was not the only cause that dropped John to the bottom of the standings, but it didn't help.  Toffoli will need a 4-point night to make his selection spot relevant, just for of curiosity sake.

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