Trying to making some sense of the Slater Koekkoek recall situation

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
March 24, 2017

The sight of seeing another Lightning player have to be helped off the ice during a game is becoming somewhat of a numbing experience for Tampa Bay and its fans.

But that doesn’t mean the impact is not felt.

Tampa Bay will be without defenseman Jason Garrison for the foreseeable future after he left Thursday’s game in Boston with an apparent injury to his right leg/ankle area. Garrison needed help off the ice and back to the locker room, unable to put any weight on the right leg.

Ahead of tonight’s game at Detroit (Fox Sports Sun, 970-AM, tblpowerplay.com) Tampa Bay has called up defenseman Slater Koekkoek from the Syracuse Crunch on an emergency basis. Koekkoek is expected to be in the lineup tonight against the Red Wings.

But there has been plenty of confusion as to exactly how the Lightning, which are out of regular recalls, were able to call Koekkoek up. I’ll try to explain it as best as I can.

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Here is how the recall system works for NHL teams after the trade deadline.

Teams are permitted just four straight recalls – these are call ups that can be made for any reason by the NHL club – once the NHL trade deadline has passed. Tampa Bay used these up on Jake Dotchin, Adam Erne, Yanni Gourde and Gabriel Dumont. These four were “assigned’’ to Syracuse just before the deadline passed in a paper transaction in order to make them eligible for the postseason in the American Hockey League.

So every recall Tampa Bay has made, or will make, since then is an emergency recall. In order for an emergency recall to be utilized, the NHL club must fall below the minimum number of roster players designated to the position being called up. So that means if a team has fewer than 12 healthy forwards, six healthy defensemen or two healthy goaltenders, the team is permitted to bring up a player to fill the void at those positions if there is an injury that prevents a full 20-man roster from being put on the ice for a game.

As an example, Joel Vermin is permitted to be called up on an emergency due to the current number of healthy forwards on the roster, even as Greg McKegg has been a healthy scratch. While Luke Witkowski has been playing at forward, he is classified as a defenseman, so technically the addition of Vermin gives the Lightning 12 healthy forwards at the moment – Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, Jonathan Drouin, Yanni Gourde, Vladislav Namestnikov, J.T. Brown, Vermin, Dumont, Erne and McKegg. Witkowski does not count against this group.

Which brings up the next point – Koekkoek can only be called up if Tampa Bay has fewer than six healthy defenseman able to play tonight in Detroit. With the Garrison absence, the Lightning still have: Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman, Andrej Sustr, Braydon Coburn, Jake Dotchin and Witkowski as six health defenseman.

Unless one of them is not deemed healthy enough to play.

And that is the only situation that makes sense that allows Koekkoek to be called up – somebody else on the blue line must either be a game-time decision or is out of the lineup tonight.

Tampa Bay played last night’s game in Boston with five defenseman once Garrison went down at the 5:24 mark of the second period.

In looking at the ice time for the rest of the game – and it can be tricky with an odd-numbered amount of defenseman – nothing seemed too out of sorts. Withkowski, by the way, did not take any shifts on defense last night.

So the only abnormality in the ice time came from Dotchin, who finished the game with 17:26 of ice time. But it was in the third that he had his lowest amount, taking just six shifts (he had 8 in the first period and nine in the second) while logging only 4:01 of ice time in the final period (after getting 5:48 and 7:37, respectively, in the first two periods).

By comparison, Victor Hedman – Dotchin’s normal defense partner – took 11 shifts in the third and played over 10 minutes. Andrej Sustr had nine shifts in the third, Braydon Coburn had 10 shifts and Anton Stralman had 12 shifts in the final period.

Again, it can be tricky if assistant coach Rick Bowness just went with two pairings while filtering in a fifth defenseman at odd times. And Dotchin took just two shifts in the final 10 minutes of the third, with about a six-minute gap between shifts (9:17 mark to the 15:06 mark)

Dotchin has been nursing a bit of an issue with his left arm in some capacity since the end of the game at Ottawa that has seen him miss some practice time, but not any game time.

While I’m not saying that Dotchin is out tonight and I may be looking to deep in to the situation. But Koekkoek can only be called up for one reason right now, the team may only have five healthy defenseman for tonight’s game, which would trigger the emergency status.

We’ll have to see closer to game time how accurate that assessment turns out to be.

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