Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Erixon Recalled to Fill Staal's Void

It's a good news/bad news situation for a couple of poolies, in regards to the statuses of a pair of New York Rangers defensemen.

First, the bad news... the Rangers have placed Marc Staal on the Injured Reserve due to his post-concussion syndrome symptoms, which have not subsided over the last week, as he has practised with the team's minor league affiliate.  There was some thought that he might fly over to Stockholm to join the team for opening night, but that isn't going to be the case.

This opens the door for young defenseman Tim Erixon, who was sent down to the minors only a few days ago, on the assumption that Staal could be ready to go.  That isn't the case, so Erixon has left the minor league team in Connecticut, straight for Stockholm and should be ready to go for Friday evening (in Sweden).

ImplicationsWhat does this mean in the draft? Well, it means that Wes M. will be without his third defenseman for at least the first couple games of the NHL season, while Leon G. will have his last pick in the draft in the line-up, ready to prove that he's ready for the NHL. Since we have yet to have a game played this season, this isn't much of a swing situation just yet, but Leon does have a reasonable advantage on the blueline starting on Friday.

Both pool teams are dealing with names on the news list going into the season, Wes currently has four names on the list, three of which will start the season on the injured reserve, while Leon has one in the minors and another on the injured reserve as well.  We're not expecting a big start from either team early on.

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