Wings call up Jakub Kindl, will not play Sheahan tonight

Wih Niklas Kronwall on IR longer than initially expected, the Detroit Red Wings have made a move to shore up their defensive depth. After giving him a few weeks to rediscover his game in the minors, the team has called up Jakub Kindl for the Grand Rapids Griffins ahead of tonight’s game.

The soon-to-be 29-year-old hasn’t exactly ripped it up with the Griffins since being sent down. In nine games, Kindl put up just just two goals and one assist, and only the helpwer as at even strength. As well, he was a minus player in every game that he found himself on the score-sheet.

Calling Kindl up solely to have an emergency option in the press box doesn’t seem like the end of the world. After all, you never want to be left stranded without a defenceman when you’re on a road trip and somebody drops out, and it certainly doesn’t make sense to stunt the development of any defensive prospects by tossing them in the press box. As well, if the Red Wings are hoping that a team will take Kindl’s contract off their hands, every day he stays up gets him closer to requiring waivers to go back down to Grand Rapids. With the latter point made, though, I doubt that he’s up here for the necessary thirty days.

If he does have to draw in, one would hope that the team receives the relatively decent, if sheltered possession play that they got out of him in his first 23 games this year, with a bit more of an offensive spark. Whether or not that will happen, though, is anybody’s guess.

As well, the team confirmed that Riley Sheahan will be out for tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Sheahan was previously reported to be suffering an illness and despite his best efforts to power through it in recent practices, isn’t quite in game shape. Puck drop tonight is at 8:00 PM.