Hours After First NHL Goal, St. Louis Blues Send Wade Megan Back to AHL Chicago Wolves
Less than 24 hours after he scored his first NHL goal, Wade Megan is headed back to the AHL Chicago Wolves.
It’s been a whirlwind 48 hours for Wade Megan. After playing in a Wednesday night game for the AHL Chicago Wolves, collecting a goal and an assist as the Wolves fell to the Rockford IceHogs, Megan was whisked away to Florida, missing the morning skate but arriving in time to make his NHL debut as the St. Louis Blues faced the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Megan came out firing, scoring a goal on his first shot and posting a plus-2 rating in 9:40 of ice time as the Blues fell to the Bolts. The dream came to a pause for Megan on Friday morning, though, as the Blues announced roughly 15 hours after his first goal that he’s been reassigned to the Wolves.
This was the plan all along for Megan, who was called up to replace Paul Stastny as he dealt with an upper-body injury on Thursday. Stastny is expected to return on Wednesday when the Blues host the Philadelphia Flyers. If he has a setback, the Blues could always recall Megan on Wednesday, but there’s no sense in allowing him to count against the cap as the team breaks for a five-day holiday layoff.
While the Blues simply don’t have roster space to keep Megan around right now, it seems as if he’ll be one of the first depth players they look to if there are more injuries through the rest of the season, especially since NHL vets Magnus Paajarvi and Landon Ferraro are dealing with long-term injuries at Chicago. As NHL.com’s Lou Korac passed along after Thursday’s game, head coach Ken Hitchcock is one of Megan’s fans:
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Megan was the second player this season to record a point in his Blues debut. Defenseman Brad Hunt collected an assist when he wore the Blue Note for the first time against the New Jersey Devils earlier this month.