A few bodies moved around within the Tampa Bay Lightning organization on Friday, with the blue line and down the middle the areas affected by the movement.
We’ll start at the northern half of Tampacuse with the Syracuse Crunch. Roster depletion and injuries (as well as looming needs by the Tampa Bay Lightning) necessitated Syracuse beef up its roster. The Crunch announced the signing of defenseman Charlie Dodero to a professional tryout. Dodero was most recently with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL. Dodero, 22, is a righty defenseman with 3 goals and 9 assists on the season in Boise; he’s also a minus-1.
The backend in Syracuse was added with depth from within the Lightning organization as well as defenseman Dan Milan, 22, was recalled by the Crunch from Wichita of the ECHL. Milan, who has 10 assists and is a minus-6 on the season in Wichita, is a big body at 6’3″ and fills a physical need made necessary by other blue line transaction of the evening.
Tampa Bay called up Luke Witkowski from the Crunch. The big body, gritty, right-hand-shot defenseman the Lightning have been lacking since Radko Gudas went down with his knee injury recently. Witkowski has 1 goal and 5 assists on the season for Syracuse, 75 penalty minutes, and is a plus-3.
This increased the Bolts roster to 24 players, necessitating a deduction… With Tyler Johnson in shape to play, center Vladislav Namestnikov was the odd-man-out on the roster and sent back to the Crunch.
How will defensive pairings be shifted around tomorrow against the Colorado Avalanche? The question is prompted by the unclear status of Matt Carle, who left Thursday’s game late with an undisclosed lower body injury. Well, Carle as well as the possible return of Victor Hedman to the lineup. He participated in Lightning practice at noon today without a red jersey.
