Another top forward lost to injury, Vermin recalled

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
February 4, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – A season already on the brink of falling off the cliff – if it hasn’t already – in due part to major injuries to key players may now have hit another top forward for the the Lightning.

The Lightning are already without captain Steven Stamkos, who is out a minimum of another five-to-six weeks, along with Ryan Callahan, who has had issues in recovering from off-season hip surgery. Now another top-six forward may be on the verge of dealing with an injury that could keep him out of the lineup for an undetermined amount of time.

Left wing Joel Vermin was recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League as Ondrej Palat will be out tonight as Tampa Bay hosts Anaheim on Saturday (7 p.m., Fox Sports Sun, 970-AM and tblpowerplay.com at Amalie Arena.

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How long Palat will miss is yet to be determined after he was injured during Thursday’s loss to the Ottawa Senators. Palat played 16 minutes in the loss, picking up an assist. It’s unclear exactly when Palat was injured.

The team is expected to make an announcement on Palat’s situation following today’s morning skate.

Palat played the the entire game on Thursday, though the third was his lowest amount of ice time in the game, logging 4:14 on seven shifts in the tird period. He finished with 16:17 of ice time total and his last shift of the game was completed with 1:30 left in the period.

At various points this season, Tampa Bay has seen injuries keep Jonathan Drouin, Nikita Kucherov, J.T. Brown, Brayden Point, Cedric Paquette, Brian Boyle out for at least a handful of games.

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