Erik Karlsson called up Brian Lee sent back down to Bingo

Per the Sens twitter:

http://twitter.com/nhl_sens

Sens recall Erik Karlsson from Binghamton (AHL) and re-assign Brian Lee

The Ottawa Senators today recalled defenceman Erik Karlsson
from the club’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton
Senators, and re-assigned defenceman Brian Lee to the AHL team.

Karlsson, assigned to Binghamton on Oct. 27, recorded 11 assists, 22
penalty minutes and was even in plus-minus over the team’s last 12
games. He recorded assists in seven of 12 games, had three multi-point
games, including a team-high three assists in his team’s 7-0 win over
the Adirondack Phantoms on Thursday, Nov. 26.

story:

http://senators.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=507653

Who saw this coming ??

A little Diddled up. We crap on Lee a lot but he doesn't deserve to be sent down.

Wow. Very curious. My first thoughts on this:

1) Woo! Now Karlsson is with us for the year. I think all this back-and-forth stuff really shows that we're having a hard time figuring out how to handle him...

2) Lee deserved better, but...

3) ... I think this marks the beginning of the end for Campoli, for sure. I don't know why else you call up Karlsson when you know doing so means burning off the first year of his ELC. We're not going to do that, AND pay Karlsson almost 3 times as much as Campoli, just to sit. Campoli just officially became 7th man and trade bait (if it wasn't obvious before).

4) Our D when Volchenkov returns:

Phillips - Volchenkov
Kuba - Karlsson
Carkner - Picard

Extras: Campoli, Lee (1st call up).

I.e., exactly what we all thought it would be after about game 2 of the season.

Damn... that is a surprise... I did not see this coming. I mean, we talked about it, but I did not think it would actually happen.

I supsect we're going to see the original pairings then...

Phillips - Volchenkov
Kuba - Karlsson
Picard - Carkner

Hmmm...

EDIT: Rooney beats me to it... but Picard is a left hand shot and Carkner is a right hand shot...

Come to think of it, he never really got to play with Kuba.

SeawaySensFan wrote:Come to think of it, he never really got to play with Kuba.

They played well in pre-season didn't they? Kuba got injured right off the bat and Karlsson's ELC 10-game limit was looming...

As far as I could see, Lee was doing pretty good defensively...not so much on Offence though...but this is more about Erik coming up than Lee being sent down if that makes sense...


Rooney's got it right, I think that Kuba's health is a key reason for Karlsson coming up. They wanted them paired from the start of the year.

Something has to be up.

One more game in the NHL would burn Karlsson's ELC meaning he'd almost certainly stay with the big club for the rest of the year. With Volchenkov expected to return tomorrow Ottawa would have 7 active defencemen on their roster again;exactly where they started the year. (Kuba, Phillips, Volch, Picard, Campoli, Carkner, and Karlsson) Why healthy-scratch a player when everyone could be playing (ie: Karlsson and Lee in the minors).

Kovalfie wrote:Something has to be up.

One more game in the NHL would burn Karlsson's ELC meaning he'd almost certainly stay with the big club for the rest of the year. With Volchenkov expected to return tomorrow Ottawa would have 7 active defencemen on their roster again;exactly where they started the year. (Kuba, Phillips, Volch, Picard, Campoli, Carkner, and Karlsson) Why healthy-scratch a player when everyone could be playing (ie: Karlsson and Lee in the minors).

My guess: 'cause Campoli is in the dog-house, big time, and maybe even on his way out. He's been playing, like, 12 minutes a game for a while now, and with little or no PP time.

I wonder if Lee was also being shopped... perhaps a trade? Hmmm...

Perhaps they are just moving Lee down until they move one or both of Picard/Campoli. I don't know why you'd move Picard though, I suppose he has been playing well, but I really like the idea of having the three righty's in the line-up (Karlsson, Lee, Carkner). Gives us a lot of flexibility.

shabbs wrote:I wonder if Lee was also being shopped... perhaps a trade? Hmmm...

Where's that Hawks smokescreen thread when we need it?

Hard to shop a guy that is in the minors.... not impossible, but just not the best way to show a team what he has at the NHL level.

Dash wrote:Hard to shop a guy that is in the minors.... not impossible, but just not the best way to show a team what he has at the NHL level.

Your probably right. I guess this is just waiting for approval from the league office then.

The Sun story, with quotes from Clouston:

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/11/27/11953541.html

Seems Volchenkov is not a sure thing for Saturday, which would mean that (gulp) Karlsson is going to be paired with Campoli.

Still, this is way weird. You don't burn off a year of a guy's ELC on a whim. Calling up Karlsson now means we're pretty much committing to him for the year.

There's something behind this, for sure.