The Dallas Stars have placed two forwards on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) to open up cap space for additional moves.
The team announced Monday afternoon that Matt Duchene has been placed on LTIR, retroactive to Oct. 18, with an undisclosed injury, and Adam Erne has been as well, retroactive to Nov. 11, with a lower-body injury.
A player can be placed on LTIR if he will miss at least 10 games and 24 days of the season. Doing so frees up his roster spot and allows the team to exceed the cap by that player’s cap hit minus their available cap space, unlike regular injured reserve, which only frees up the roster spot.
Because both players were placed on LTIR retroactively, Duchene would be available to be activated as soon as he is healthy. The veteran forward was injured on a hit during the Oct. 14 against Minnesota, returned for one game but has been out of the lineup since. Erne was injured on the road in Ottawa last week and is expected to miss multiple weeks. His 24-day window would allow him to return on Dec. 5 at the earliest.
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The moves indicate the Stars will call up and/or activate a player in the near future. Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said Sunday that defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin, who missed Sunday’s practice, is being evaluated for an injury and that the team would know more Monday.
Without Lyubushkin, Thomas Harley who is week-to-week and Nils Lundkvist, who was already on LTIR, the Stars would be down to five defensemen and need to call up some support.
But before Monday’s moves, Dallas had enough cap space to call up defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok, whose cap hit is just $775,000. The Stars would’ve only needed to place either Duchene or Erne on LTIR if they wanted to call up a different defenseman, so the simultaneous moves indicate they may be making additional transactions. Together, Erne’s and Duchene’s cap hits combine for $5.275 million.
They could call up two defensemen before heading to Western Canada later this week, as the team typically likes to have seven defensemen available on road trips.
Jamie Benn has also been deemed day-to-day and has been skating with the team for weeks. The Stars are expected to activate the captain as soon as this week but said they want to ensure his conditioning is up to speed before doing so. Benn has missed the entire start to the season recovering from surgery for a collapsed lung he suffered in the preseason.
Dallas could certainly use the support of its captain, as the Stars have battled through injuries constantly throughout the first 19 games of their season.
The Stars are tied for second in the NHL standings, trailing only the Colorado Avalanche, despite playing games without Oskar Bäck, Benn, Duchene, Erne, Harley, Roope Hintz and Lundkvist due to injuries.
If Benn returns, Duchene, Erne, Harley, Lundkvist and potentially Lyubushkin would make up the list of currently injured Stars.
The Stars play the New York Islanders at home Tuesday, and a decision on Benn’s status should come Tuesday morning.
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