Flyers activate Denver Barkey; place Nikita Grebenkin on IR
The Philadelphia Flyers announced two transactions on Monday, as they activated center Denver Barkey off injured reserve and placed winger Nikita Grebenkin on IR.
Barkey is set to play his first hockey game since the Flyers’ first preseason game, a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on September 21st, as he sustained a lower-body injury. He later tweaked that injury during practice, which resulted in his IR placement and missing the first three games of the regular season. According to Daily Faceoff’s projected lines, Barkey is projected to play on the fourth line with Sean Couturier and Noel Acciari for Monday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Barkey is coming off of his rookie NHL season, where he had five goals and 12 assists for 17 points in 43 regular season games with the Flyers, as well as a goal and an assist for two points in 10 playoff games. He also had seven goals and nine assists for 16 points in 26 games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the AHL.
Grebenkin finds himself on injured reserve after missing the Flyers’ first three regular season games due to an upper-body injury. He sustained the injury during a 2-0 preseason win against the Boston Bruins on September 24th due to a hard hit.
Because of the missed time already meeting the required seven days, Grebenkin is eligible to be activated whenever he is healthy, but the IR placement is a transactional one to make room for Barkey on the roster. The Flyers will need to make room on their roster for Grebenkin when he does return, whether that comes by way of another injured player going on IR or by sending a player to the minors. The only waiver exempt players on Philadelphia’s NHL roster are Barkey, Alex Bump, Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov and Garrett Wilson.
Grebenkin is coming off of his first season as a full-time NHLer, where he had four goals and 10 assists for 14 points in 55 games. He did not play in the playoffs, as an upper-body injury kept him out for the final 13 regular season games and the entirety of the Flyers’ playoff run. Grebenkin’s current injury is not related to the upper-body injury from last season.
Barkey will look to make an immediate impact as the Flyers look for their first win of the season when they visit the Lightning on Monday at 7 p.m. EST.
