Flames News and Notes, February 12 2013

 

 

Flames general manager Jay Feaster had a pow-wow with local media on Tuesday morning prior to practice. Here’s a quick rundown of what was discussed. Most of it related to the ongoing roster-spot shell game.

Feaster mentioned that after practice yesterday, Miikka Kiprusoff underwent an MRI after complaining of knee pain. The MRI revealed a Grade 2 MCL sprain, not a Grade 1 sprain as originally thought. It was noted, though, that the sprain is not as severe as Mikael Backlund’s and Kiprusoff is only expected to be out another two weeks.

More details came out about the claiming of goaltender Joey MacDonald yesterday. Feaster noted that he was a player that their pro scouts targeted and recommended the team acquire. If you do the math, MacDonald has over a hundred NHL starts, Leland Irving has less than a dozen and Danny Taylor has played a period of NHL hockey.

Seen in that light, particularly with Miikka Kiprusoff having nine previous understudies during his stint in Calgary, grabbing a 33-year-old veteran back-up makes some sense. The goaltending situation, though, will not be settled until Kiprusoff returns (and then the team will have to choose between MacDonald and Irving as back-up).

After two games in the show, centre Ben Street has been returned to Abbotsford of the AHL and Paul Byron recalled. Feaster indicated that at the time of Street’s recall, it was a “pick ’em” between Street, Byron and Roman Horak for a recall and that the coaching staff was relied upon in making the decision to swap the players.

Byron has 15 points in 35 games this season with Abbotsford and is a minus-4. Street had zero points in two NHL games with Calgary and is a minus-2.

In other news, with three goalies in town, goalie Danny Taylor has been placed on waivers with the intention of sending him back to Abbotsford. Once Taylor comes off the books tomorrow, the Flames intend to activate Mike Cammalleri from the IR and have him in the line-up for Wednesday’s meeting with the Dallas Stars.

While Feaster would probably prefer to have more flexibility – and it appears that based on how much the club wanted MacDonald, timelines and circumstances meant that they had to sign Danny Taylor for this week – he’s not overly concerned about having 49 players under NHL contracts.

When asked, he mentioned that they would be concerned (and working on off-loading some deals) if they were at 50 contracts, but that 49 wasn’t a big deal.