Michael Keranen Reassigned To Iowa Wild
Four games after getting recalled by the Minnesota Wild, Michael Keranen has been reassigned to the Iowa Wild.
#mnwild reassigns Keranen to @iawild per the @TOTALLUXURYLIMO I-35 Report: http://t.co/a226DcESQ6
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) February 25, 2015
Keranen was called up when it looked like there was a chance that injury might keep Thomas Vanek out of the lineup. However, Vanek played through the injury and with the strong play of Jordan Schroeder and Justin Fontaine recently, a place never opened in the roster for Keranen to make his NHL debut. He was a healthy scratch in four straight games.
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The acquisition of winger Sean Bergenheim through a trade with the Florida Panthers on Tuesday sealed Keranen’s fate.
The return of Keranen is great news for Iowa though, who dropped a 6-2 decision to the Grand Rapids Griffins on Tuesday night. He’s been one of the few bright spots on the team, ranking second overall in scoring, behind Tyler Graovac, with nine goals and 23 assists.
But not only has Keranen been a key component for Iowa, they’ve been decimated by injury lately. They’re currently without Gustav Olofsson, Josh Harding, Alex Gudbranson, Brad Richard, Brett Bulmer, Guillaume Gelinas, Jason Gregoire, Joel Rechlicz, Raphael Bussieres, and Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel. They were also missing Ruslan Fedotenko for a good chunk of their recent games.
In addition to that slate of injuries, they’ve had a tough time getting the production they need out of some of the regulars who need to be leaders on the team. Coach John Torchetti has had to go as far as making first round draft pick Zack Phillips a healthy scratch (again) in Tuesday’s game. He currently sports a minus-19 rating, worst among team forwards and second worst to Danny Syvret overall. Phillips was a team-worst minus-30 last season, though he made up for that a bit by leading the team in scoring.
Even with the acquisition of Bergenheim — and I like this trade quite a bit — I fall in the camp of people who’d like the team to see what they have in Keranen before the start of the playoffs (assuming the team makes the playoffs). With recent moves, it appears that barring injury, we won’t get a look at Keranen at the NHL level any time soon.
Keranen is on a one-year contract following signing with the Wild as an undrafted free agent over the summer. He spent last season playing in the Finnish Elite League (Liiga).