With six players on the injured reserve list, it was time for the Arizona Coyotes to take some action to replace the fallen players.
Enter Jordan Weal
The team announced this afternoon that they have obtained center Jordan Weal from the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Jacob Graves and a 2019 sixth-round draft choice.
Obviously with the announcement that their third center had been added to the injured reserve list when Brad Richardson was relegated to week-to-week status with a hand injury he acquired in the last game against the Vancouver Canucks, something needed to happen.
He is expected to be out from four-to-six weeks. OUCH!
Weal, 26 has tallied three goals, six assists in 28 games with the Flyers this season.
The 5'10", 180lb forward has respectable numbers with 19-G, 23-A in 134 career NHL games with the Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers.
He likes to go to the net similar to a smaller player like Conor Garland who has been successful doing that since his call-up from Tucson of the AHL.
The thing which more than likely attracted Chayka to Weal was his analytics. He is a solid 53.5 Corsi For and has been a third or fourth-line player who sat in the press box a lot due to the Flyers' depth at center-ice.
His face-off win percentage is decent with a 51.9 percent success rate. That will be vital to replace Richardson who is a faceoff pro. He has averaged about 13 minutes of ice time in his NHL career.
That may change with the Coyotes needing any healthy bodies they can put on the ice with the growing number of players falling to injuries.
Jacob Graves
The 23-year-old. 6'2", 190lb defenseman that the Coyotes gave up has been playing in the ECHL and AHL where he accumulated six goals, 14 assists in 107 games. He also had 154 PIM, so he can mix it up. It just appears that the Coyotes saw him as expendable and needed to get a center really fast.
All in all, it's a good trade to give the Coyotes some injury relief
With Richardson done for an extended period of time the team was down to Derek Stepan, Vinnie Hinostroza, Nick Cousins, and newly called up Laurent Dauphin to hold down the center-ice position.
Of course, Clayton Keller has played center and Alex Galchenyuk was supposed to be a center but is doing nicely on the wing so that is where he has been placed.
It gives head coach Rick Tocchet some flexibility to fill the gaping holes left in his roster due to the exorbitant number of players placed on the injured reserve.
Weal may fit in nicely on the third or fourth line but could be moved up depending on his level of play.
One thing is for certain, he will get some valuable playing time seeing that he had players like Sean Couturier, Nolan Patrick, Scott Laughton, and Jori Lehtera ahead of him while in Philadelphia at his center position.
It could ring well for Weal to show the Coyotes what he can do and he may get re-signed. He currently has a $1.75 million cap hit through this season and will be an unrestricted free agent next season.
At least for now, the Coyotes have a re-enforcement to help the team's quest for a playoff spot.
What is your take on the trade the Arizona Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers completed? Will it help the Coyotes to replace the growing number of injuries they've sustained? Let us know in the comments section below.