NEWARK, NJ – Stars strikers Jason Robertson and Blake Comeau did not travel with the team for the season opening four-game road trip, coach Rick Bowness said Wednesday afternoon.
Both players are dealing with upper body injuries that Bowness has referred to on a daily basis. Bowness also said the stars are “more optimistic” that Comeau will be joining the team by the end of the trip than Robertson. The team also placed Comeau in the injured reserve retrospectively October 7, qualifying him for the first time to play in Boston on Saturday.
Striker Alexander Radulov did not train in Newark on Wednesday afternoon because he was “under the weather,” Bowness said. He is expected to play against Rangers on Thursday.
“It has nothing to do with COVID,” said Bowness. “We just didn’t want him to be on the team in case there was a mistake.”
With Radulov absent and Robertson and Comeau not on the trip, the stars in training were reduced to 11 strikers. This forced defender Joel Hanley to play as right-winger on the fourth row.
The Stars face a precarious salary cap situation to recall players in the event another striker is injured. After making five moves on Tuesday (Joel Kiviranta and Jacob Peterson in the NHL, with Jake Oettinger, Ty Dellandrea and Oskar Bäck in the AHL), the stars opened $ 746,666 on top of their $ 1.075 million in their performance bonus pool at Cap Square.
But the minimum salary in the NHL is $ 750,000 and the only player to have a cap hit below $ 750,000 is Joel L’Esperance. L’Esperance has a cap of $ 725,000 but is not vaccinated against COVID-19. That means he would be quarantined if recalled and would not be allowed to play in Canada, where the stars will play against the senators on Sunday night.
No Stars defenders are exempt, but two Dallas strikers are. Sending just one of Peterson ($ 842,500) or Kiviranta ($ 1.05 million) to the AHL would create enough space to recall two players with smaller hits like Riley Damiani, Nick Caamano or Rhett Gardner.
By placing Comeau on IR on Wednesday, the stars would have enough space for callbacks if necessary.
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