With their season concluding one night earlier, the parent Carolina Hurricanes reassigned forwards Nicolas Blanchard, Jared Staal and Tim Wallace to Charlotte on Sunday. Those three were the only players on the NHL roster eligible to take part in this season’s Calder Cup Playoffs.
With Sean Dolan returning from injury to open the scoring on Saturday, the Checkers will now have 17 healthy forwards at their disposal and some decisions to make. Late-season rookie additions Brock McGinn and Brendan Woods were the odd men out for Game 2, with three experienced players set to join them on the sidelines due to the team’s increased depth, its most since the NHL’s lockout ended in January.
Oklahoma City’s parent club, the Edmonton Oilers, also played its final game of the season on Saturday, which will eventually result in the return of forward Anton Lander. Lander, the only playoff-eligible forward on the Oilers’ roster, had 20 points (9g, 11a) in 47 AHL games this season.
Blanchard, 25, and Wallace, 28, immediately become two of the most-experienced players on Charlotte’s roster, having played 403 and 375 career AHL games, respectively. Wallace, who scored 13 points in his last 13 most recent AHL games (4g, 9a) has the most playoff experience of any Checkers skater, having suited up for 54 playoff games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton between 2007 and 2011. That includes an appearance in the 2008 Calder Cup Final, which his Penguins lost to Chicago in six games.
Blanchard is next on that list with 36 games played, all with the Hurricanes’ top AHL affiliate over the last six seasons. He is the Checkers’ all-time penalty minutes leader with 328, including a team-high 124 this season.
Both Blanchard and Staal, a 22-year-old who has yet to suit up for a professional playoff game, are coming off their first career NHL recalls. Wallace has played a total of 101 career games with Pittsburgh, the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay and Carolina.
Any other additions to the Charlotte lineup will have to come from an injured group of players that includes forward Luke Pither and defensemen Brendon Nash and Michal Jordan or from junior hockey, where former Checkers center Victor Rask continues his playoff run with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen.
