The New Jersey Devils placed forward Evgenii Dadonov on injured reserve on Sunday, due to a fractured hand sustained in the season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 9.
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The 36-year-old winger, signed to a one-year, $1 million contract, is expected to miss at least four weeks. Dadonov, who scored 20 goals with Dallas last season, was playing on the top line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt.
In response, coach Sheldon Keefe adjusted the lineup for the October 11 game against Tampa Bay, moving Ondrej Palat to the top line and promoting rookie Arseny Gritsyuk to the third line. Gritsyuk recorded two assists in a 5-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Zack MacEwen filled Gritsyuk’s previous fourth line role.
The Devils recalled 26-year-old forward Brian Halonen from the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets to fill the roster spot. Halonen, undrafted out of Michigan Tech, has 47 goals in 97 AHL games over the past two seasons and brings a physical, bottom-six presence with penalty-kill ability. Halonen has an NHL-caliber shot to boot. He has yet to register a point in four NHL games.
Halonen has been fighting for an NHL roster spot for the last several training camps. He showed well in the preseason, and although Keefe recognized the uphill battle for Halonen, he was impressed.
“Yeah, I thought he was good. I mean, that’s a big time shot,” Keefe said after Halonen scored against the New York Rangers in the preseason. “Obviously, you don’t see a lot of one-timers go in from that distance outside the dot in the NHL. That’s an NHL goalie he beats clean on that. So that was a great shot. We’ve seen that from him.”
However, the Devils are flush with scoring talent. If Halonen is going to remain on the NHL roster, it’s going to be because he plays an effective checking role in the bottom six, and perhaps on the penalty kill.
“I thought he played hard, in straight lines and doing all that sort of stuff,” Keefe said. “You know, I don’t know how much ice time would be available on our team for him to rip one-timers on the power play and such. So it’s a lot of the other things that he’s got to be able to show in other areas of his game, being finding ways to produce at 5-on-5.”
Halonen will meet the Devils in Ohio for their next tilt against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
