The Philadelphia Flyers made some roster moves on Wednesday. A day after the team dropped a heartbreaker to the Carolina Hurricanes, the team put one player on injured reserve and called one of their top AHL players up.
Ryan Poehling Goes Down
Ryan Poehling has had a fairly good start to this season. The gritty fourth-liner has five assists; which isn't bad for a line that is supposed to play a good, tight, forechecking game instead of being a scoring threat. He also has 20 blocked shots and delivered seven hits. In the faceoff circle, he has won 50% of the time, a vast improvement for Flyers centers over the last few years. All of this comes with an average of 13:31 minutes per game.
What exactly happened to Poehling isn't known, or at least reported. Poehling hadn't joined the team on the Flyers' current road trip as he was also dealing with a personal matter. His placement on the injured reserved list is retroactive to Nov. 2. He cannot be activated to play until the 11th. Noah Cates has taken his spot on the bottom line and Nic Deslauriers has filled in.
Anthony Richard Called Up From Phantoms
With Poehling down, the Flyers needed to fill the roster space. Anthony Richard is currently killing it for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He has nine points in seven games, including four goals.
Richard joined the Flyers this offseason after signing a two-year deal. The 27-year-old has had NHL experience before, appearing in 24 games between Nashville, Montreal, and Boston. He has scored four goals and four assists. However, in a 10-year career in the AHL, Richard has performed well, putting up 309 points in 488 career games.
How much time he gets to play is yet to be seen. With a team loaded with veterans, he'll have to show something to John Tortorella. That might be easier than imagined. During training camp, Richard looked hungry, skating hard and making clean forechecks. If Richard can skate well in practice, he may earn a place in a game soon. And with some players, like Morgan Frost not playing up to par, it could allow for a hungry player to get some playing time.
If anything, Richard is a fast guy and can fly. That should be an interesting asset that Tortorella can exploit. Being a hard worker, he should get a look as that is the type of player that the coach likes. And while we hope that Poehling can recover soon, let's hope that Richard will make an impact and play well while he is here.