When following minor league sports there’s usually a few things that happen each season that initially doesn’t make much sense at first, especially when a story develops too quickly with not a ton of context. The first of this season happened with the Worcester Railers losing both of their goaltenders to the AHL.
We received multiple messages and comments on social media asking what exactly was going on with these transactions. This blog post should help clear up the events from earlier this week.
Enter the Los Angeles Kings and the New York organizations. Both teams have lost a goaltender due to injury this week, putting an impact on their affiliate’s own goaltending situations as goalies get called up.
Los Angeles lost Jonathan Quick to an injury that has been affecting his play since the beginning of the season and was put on injured reserve this week. Los Angeles quickly called up Peter Budaj from the Ontario Reign and Ontario was on the lookout for another goaltender of their own. Evan Buitenhuis just happened to catch their eye after playing in two games in Worcester this season and was signed to a PTO on Sunday. Usually, teams have an extra goaltender stashed in the ECHL, which LA does with Cole Kehler in Manchester, but he is currently injured.
Boots arrived in Ontario, California at some point on Monday and practiced with the team throughout the week.
Worcester signed Ryan Hubbard as their first Emergency Back-Up Goaltender (EBUG) on Monday. Hubbard re-joins the Railers after being signed to a professional try-out (PTO) contract earlier this year for training camp.
The Railers goaltending situation changed even more after New York Islanders’ Robin Lehner was injured during the team’s game on Tuesday night with what is described as a “strain”. Consequently, Christopher Gibson was recalled to the Islanders from Bridgeport on Wednesday and Mitch Gillam was eventually recalled on Thursday morning. Lehner’s injury from the start was considered to not be serious.
Back in Worcester, the Railers scrambled as they looked to sign a second EBUG. They signed Jason San Antonio for Thursday. Given that he hasn’t played since the 2013-14 season for Bryant University, the Railers likely only needed him as an extra body on the ice for practice.
AHL Transactions listed that Ontario signed another goaltender, Charles Williams, to a PTO in the early afternoon Thursday. Given that Manchester played on Wednesday with limited goaltending options, this likely means the Buitenhuis signing was done to give Manchester more time to find new goaltenders. Subsequently, the transactions page later listed that Buitenhuis was released from his PTO. With Buitenhuis heading back to Worcester, Jason San Antonio was released Thursday afternoon.
Manchester is now dealing with similar issues Worcester was dealing with this week. They have signed former Railer Will King and will be searching for another, likely Joe Spagnoli (a former Railers EBUG) heading into this weekend.
Buitenhuis will be the Railers starting goaltender heading this weekend. Ryan Hubbard will dress as the backup, pending any more transactions involving goaltenders. Mitch Gillam will stay with Bridgeport this weekend and could return to Worcester early next week.