Anaheim loses two pieces of their forward core to separate issues.
On Sunday, the Anaheim Ducks announced that they would be placing Rickard Rakell on injured reserve, and that his status would be week-to-week. They also announced that Jakob Silfverberg had been placed on the NHL’s COVID Protocol list. In a corresponding move, the Ducks recalled forward Vinni Lettieri from the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League, as well as an emergency recall of Sam Carrick.
Rakell suffered the injury on Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres. He appeared to have hurt his left shoulder after crashing into the boards.
The 28-year-old forward was off to a fine start to the season, with 4 points, all goals, through eight contests. He’s on an expiring contract that will bring him straight to unrestricted free agent status this summer, which means he could become an attractive trade piece as the season moves along.
With Max Jones already hurt, the winger department is sparse in Anaheim, and they need all hands on deck, so this Rakell injury is less than ideal. He’ll miss at least one week due to being on IR, and at least two games after that.
Along with Rakell, the Ducks are also losing forward Jakob Silfverberg to the NHL’s COVID-19 Protocol.
Silfverberg, 31, has had a pleasantly surprising start to the season, with 8 points (1 goal, 7 assists) through nine games played. He’s been a valuable piece to the Ducks’ right side of their forward core.
Unlike Rakell, Silfverberg is locked up for a while, and won’t be a rental piece near the deadline, so the urgency from the team for him to return likely isn’t as high. However, they’re definitely going to suffer some blows without him.
The team has called up Sam Carrick on an emergency basis to replace Silfverberg for the time being. He’s a very skilled AHL player who turns out to be a solid depth plug-in when needed at the NHL level, with 6 points through 13 games last season in Anaheim.
You’d think that losing these two would cause the Ducks to spiral, however, they’ve kept on marching on, and even took down the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 4-2 on Sunday night to improve to a 3-4-3 record. Funny enough, both Lettieri and Carrick scored goals in the game, which is promising for the team’s hopes of replacing their injured forwards.
The Ducks will hope to build off of their win against Montreal, as it snapped a six-game losing streak. They get right back at it tonight against the New Jersey Devils.