This Seems Like Poor Planning?

The Detroit Red Wings organization was in a bit of a goaltending bind on Friday night as one of their affiliates was left with only one goalie. The Grand Rapids Griffins announced that they had signed NAHL netminder CJ Kier to an amateur tryout contract after the Red Wings needed a goalie, an ECHL goalie got stuck, and Grand Rapids got stuck in the middle with only one netminder for their Friday night game. How did this happen, you ask? Well, it all started with the man above as Cam Talbot was the catalyst for this goaltending headache. Let's go through how everything unfolded on Friday in the crease.

Everything seemed to be fine when the day started as Cam Talbot was with the Red Wings, Jack Campbell was with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Carter Gylander was heading back to the Toledo Walleye, and CJ Kier was likely sitting at home in Parker, Colorado. As the day went on, the Red Wings announed that Cam Talbot would be unavailable for their Saturday game as they will be hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs after re-aggravating a lower-body injury.

Due to this development, Ville Husso was the only goalie on Detroit's roster with Alex Lyon still injured, so they recalled goaltender Jack Campbell from Grand Rapids under emergency conditions to fill the void left by Talbot's injury. Campbell has been with the Griffins after completing his time in the NHL Player Assistance Program, and is sporting an 0-2-0 record with a 2.55 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

As Campbell was on his way to Detroit for the game on Saturday, Grand Rapids found themselves needing a goaltender with only Sebastian Cossa on available to stop pucks as they prepared for their game in Colorado Springs, Colorado against the Colorado Eagles. To solve that problem, they recalled Carter Gylander from the Toledo Walleye who had just been re-assigned to the Walleye one day earlier. Toledo, however, was in Coralville, Iowa to play the ECHL's Iowa Heartlanders, so Gylander needed a travel plan quickly.

Whatever solution he came up with didn't meet the required deadline as Grand Rapids posted the following message to their Twitter account around 7pm CT. Needing a goalie, the Griffins found one.

Gylander appeared to still be in transit as the Griffins were preparing to skate onto the ice in Colorado Springs for warm-up, so they had to put someone on the bench to back up Sebastian Cossa. That's where Parker, Colorado's CJ Kier stepped in as what would technically be an EBUG situation as he allowed the Griffins to have two dressed netminders available for the start of the game!

For those asking, CJ Kier is a 20 year-old American netminder who last suited up for the not-so-good NAHL Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks where was 2-7-0 with a 4.20 GAA and an .881 save percentage. The former El Paso Rhinos and Bismarck Bobcats goalie appears to have been at home when the Griffins called as Parker, Colorado is a suburb of Denver, and sits about an hour north of Colorado Springs. In 27 NAHL games with three teams, Kier sported a 6-15-0 record, a 3.92 GAA, and an .891 save percentage. Would he ever be an AHL starter? Probably not, but he is good enough to stop pucks on an emergency basis for the Griffins if called upon, it seems!

For the record, Kier wasn't called upon to stop pucks, and he never actually made it to the start of the game as Gylander did finally arrive to back up Cossa, but that's a pretty cool Friday night for CJ Kier. While it would have been fun to see him sitting on the bench, Gylander appeared to arrive in time for the start of the game as Kier didn't make the gamesheet tonight. Instead, he'd be treated to watching the game from the stands, possibly cheering on the Eagles as they downed the Griffins by a 4-2 score.

Far be it from me to question Steve Yzerman, but it occurred to me as I was putting all the moving pieces together that this whole mess likely could have been avoided had the Red Wings simply recalled Jack Campbell on Saturday morning rather than putting in the recall on Friday. Campbell would have still had lots of time to get himself ready if he flew into Detroit from Denver tomorrow, so why did the Red Wings force every other team with which their affiliated to jump through hoops for a game that's being played TOMORROW?

As you know, I don't make the rules, but Grand Rapids plays in Colorado Springs again tomorrow while Toledo moves from Coralville to Bloomington for a game against the Bison. Having the majority of a day to travel rather than a handful of hours would have made more sense to me, but I'm not in charge of travel planning for the Red Wings or their affiliates. It just seems like Jack Campbell's emergency recall caused emergencies throughout the organization when there was no need for Campbell to be in Detroit on Friday.

Whatever the case for doing it on Friday was, it seems that it allowed CJ Kier to get a taste of AHL hockey in the warmup skate prior to Friday's game between the Griffins and Eagles. If nothing else, that's a pretty cool opportunity for Kier even if he only got to watch the game from the stands rather than being on the bench.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!