All of the Crunch players who were on waivers technically cleared today. So, Dana Tyrell, Mike Angelidis and Matt Taormina are set to be assigned to the Crunch.
Sort of.
After he cleared, Taormina was placed on indefinite injured reserve. Tampa has only said that it’s upper body. Taormina has had repeated problems with back injuries, and earned a lot of fans and praise when he played through ridiculous back pain during the 2013 Calder Cup playoffs. The Syracuse Post Standard reported the following this afternoon:
Lightning assistant general manager Julien BriseBois said he has no timetable for Taormina’s return, and said he will rehab in Syracuse. BriseBois said the injury is not related to the back ailment that slowed Taormina last year.
It was also announced that defenseman J.P. Cote, who sustained an injury during period two of Tampa Bay’s final preseason game, will miss at least this weekend with an upper body injury. The injury is being reported as “nothing serious.”
With the realization that Andrej Sustr isn’t coming back any time soon, the Crunch’s blueline is going to need newcomer and proven vet Joey Mormina to step into a leadership role with his new team immediately. It’s also going to need the likes of Dmitry Korobov, Nikita Nesterov, Artem Sergeev, and Luke Witkowski to step into some pretty big shoes right away in order for the Crunch’s season to start successfully right from the word “go.”
Finally, it was announced with little surprise involved that forward Brady Brassart has been released from his tryout offer.
