Flames Return Joni Ortio To Abbotsford
By Ryan Pike
10 years agoThat weird noise you just heard? That was a loud sigh coming from the Fraser Valley, as the Calgary Flames have re-assigned goalie Joni Ortio back to the AHL’s Abbotsford Heat.
Here’s the gist of why:
- When Karri Ramo was originally hurt pre-Olympics and Ortio was recalled on February 3th, the Flames never placed Ramo on the injured reserve. The reasoning was so that they could return Ortio to the AHL for the Olympics, which was what happened on February 9th. (You aren’t allowed to make assignments to the AHL if they make you fall below NHL roster requirements.)
- When Ortio returned to the NHL on February 18th, it became apparent that Ramo wouldn’t be good to go and he was placed on the IR retroactive to his date of injury (February 1st). Ramo began appearing as on the IR on the NHL’s game notes after the Olympics.
- Ortio was yo-yoed to the AHL on trade deadline day in a paper transaction so that he was eligible for the AHL playoffs, but he still occupied the roster spot that was vacated by Ramo’s injury causing an emergency roster situation at goaltender. Berra’s trade to Colorado opened a spot for them to burn a regular post-deadline recall on Joey MacDonald.
- Ortio replaced Ramo due to injury, so he was an injury replacement recall on an emergency basis.
Most likely Calgary’s options with Karri Ramo ready to return tomorrow were (a) burn a regular recall by keeping Joni Ortio up and limit your options to give a couple other guys looks by being left with just one more recall or (b) send him down to steady Abbotsford’s netminding situation and get them ready for the playoffs.
Ortio posted a 4-4-0 record with a 2.51 goals against average and a .891 save percentage in 9 games for Calgary.
Calgary will go through the last dozen games of the season with Karri Ramo (11-10-4, 2.66 GAA, .908 SV%) and Joey MacDonald (4-4-1, 3.16 GAA, .881 SV%) in the nets. Abbotsford will have Ortio (20-6-0, 2.22 GAA, .926 SV% in AHL) and Olivier Roy (7-8-1, 3.31 GAA, .901 SV% in AHL) in between the pipes as they use their last dozen games to ready themselves for what’s hopefully going to be a lengthy post-season for the Baby Flames.
Recent articles from Ryan Pike
