Arizona Coyotes Contemplating Rosters Moves

After the Arizona Coyotes center/winger Joe Vitale’s injury in the Boston game, there may be some call-ups from Springfield of the AHL.

If you didn’t see how brutally beat up Joe Vitale was after he took on more than he could handle with Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller on Saturday. TAKE A LOOK:

Vitale played it tough, but had to go to the hospital for x-rays of his hand and face. He officially out with an upper body injury, and his face looked very puffy after a couple of direct hits from Miller. Perhaps Joe can hire former Arizona Coyotes expert fighter Paul Bissonnette to learn the hold the jersey while you rabbit punch your opponent move. Head Coach Dave Tippett told the press that Vitale will be out for some time. It was announced today, that Joe Vitale has been placed on injured reserve.

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What that means is there is a roster spot open, and according to Azcentral.com’s Sarah McClellan, the Arizona Coyotes have recalled Matthias Plachta from the Springfield Falcons to fill the spot just hours ago. That puts the roster at 24 players, and Jordan Martinook may be out longer with his lower body injury, or he could play Tuesday night at New Jersey. The roster must be no more than 23 players, and Scott and Vitale were game time scratches for all the first four games, until Vitale took Martinook’s spot. Scott has not played in all five games, without it being detrimental to the team’s success.

Matthias Plachta was one of the last cuts at training camp so, it was just a matter of time before he was recalled. What may happen when Martinook is ready to play again, is the Arizona Coyotes will send John Scott down to Springfield since they waived him right before the season began, and have nine games to decide what to do with his status. Many feel that Scott is a waste of a roster spot, and the team already has tough guys in Steve Downie, and Kyle Chipchura. A third one is overkill.

Plachta will be able to come in and show what he can do in the NHL and perhaps he is the cog in the wheel who can fill a gap on the team. He is scoreless in three Spingfield Falcons games thus far. The Arizona Coyotes are sporting quite an international team. Plachta is from Germany, as is Toby Rieder.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nicklas Grossmann, Klas Dahlbeck, and Anders Lindback are fall from Sweden, while Mikkel Boedker is from Denmark. Martin Hanzal and Zbynek Michalek are both from the Czech Republic. The only American born players are Connor Murphy (Dublin, OH), and Joe Vitale (St. Louis, MO).

We’ll need to wait and see what happens to John Scott, but I’m sure the earth will not fall off its axis in the mean time. If another spot becomes available, perhaps it will be filled by Henrik Samuelsson. Henrik was slowed a bit by injury at training camp, and has played three games with Springfield while being held scoreless. The Falcons have lost all three of their AHL games this new season by the scores of 5-1, 5-3, and 4-1. They will miss Plachta on the forward line.

Best wishes to Joe Vitale as he recuperates from his injuries… he really took one for the team. I mean…he REALLY did.

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