St. Louis Blues Recall Jordan Binnington, Send Down Landon Ferraro
The St. Louis Blues apparently felt the need to add another goalie after Jake Allen suffered an injury last night.
The St. Louis Blues announced a pair of moves on Sunday morning, recalling goaltender Jordan Binnington from the AHL Chicago Wolves while assigning forward Landon Ferraro to Chicago.
Binnington’s recall appears to be a response to the injury that starting goalie Jake Allen suffered in Saturday night’s preseason finale against the Chicago Blackhawks. Defenseman Carl Gunnarsson appeared to trip and fall on Allen’s leg late in the first period, and though Allen stayed in for the rest of the period after being tended to by trainer Ray Barile, he did not return for the second period.
The Blues still haven’t announced any specifics about Allen’s injury.
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They can keep Binnington with the team until Tuesday without having to place Allen on injured reserve, as rosters must then satisfy the 23-man limit. Depending on the extent of Allen’s injury, it’s also possible that Binnington could be allowed to stick around under emergency conditions. Regardless, there seems to be a solid chance that offseason free agent acquisition Carter Hutton could make his Blues debut as the starter in Wednesday’s regular season opener against the Blackhawks.
Binnington has just 12:47 of NHL experience under his belt, which came on January 14 of last season as he relieved Brian Elliott in a blowout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Since Hutton’s career-high in games played for a season is 40–and he was in that range just once, with his next-most being 18–the Blues will certainly be hoping that they’re not forced to make do without Allen for too long.
Along with Pheonix Copley and Ville Husso, Binnington is part of a minor-league goaltending trio in which no player has truly separated himself from the pack. While Copley posted slightly better numbers in the AHL last year and has often looked better than Binnington in NHL preseason games, Binnington received the first call-up when Allen got hurt last season, returned to the NHL club as a practice player during the playoffs, and stuck around longer in training camp this year.
The 25-year-old Ferraro, who has played in 75 NHL games for the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins over the past three seasons–including 68 in 2015-16–was the final cut from the training camp roster, and he was demoted after passing through waivers on Saturday.
Next: Blues Can't Lose, But Could Win Big with Nail Yakupov Trade
Ferraro looked to have a good shot of breaking camp with the NHL club until the Blues acquired Nail Yakupov from the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night, but now he’ll go to Chicago and battle for a call-up with guys like Kenny Agostino, Samuel Blais, Ivan Barbashev, and Jordan Caron.