A day after assigning Alex Barre-Boulet to Syracuse, the 26-year-old is back with the Tampa Bay Lightning following a recall Thursday afternoon. With their roster at the max of 23 players there will be a correlating move and it appears to be Tyler Motte heading to injured reserve.
Motte played less than 8 minutes in the season-opening game. He knocked down a puck with his hand in the second period and didn’t return after that. While the Lightning haven’t officially released his injury status it appears he’ll be out for a few games. With the recall of Barre-Boulet the Lightning have the option of having him fill in or Austin Watson, who was signed just prior to the season starting.
During Wednesday’s practice (prior to the Barre-Boulet recall) Steven Stamkos was dropped to Motte’s spot on the second line with Conor Sheary (!) taking a spot on the top line. Watson was taking shifts with the Mikey Eyssimont and Nick Paul on the third line.
With a couple of more practice days before the next game, those combinations might evolve a bit, especially if Barre-Boulet gets a chance on the second line.
The Lightning’s depth is a question mark for this season and it looks like they will be getting an early test with Motte out for at least a week (the minimum required for a stay on Injured Reserve). The good news is that the Bolts do have the roster flexibility to fill the hole in the line-up thanks to the LTIR cushion provided by Andrei Vasilevskiy recovering from his surgery.
