RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes utilized their system players as needed and got some fruitful results from them while injured players healed.
By activating forward Riley Nash from injured reserve (IR), Carolina reassigned forwards Zach Boychuk and Brett Sutter to the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL) on Saturday.
Nash, 24, missed the Hurricanes’ last five games after sustaining a lower-body injury in the team’s game against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 31.
Before being injured, he had scored four goals and earned six assists (10 points) in 36 games played with Carolina.
During his second call-up of the season, Boychuk tallied three points (1g, 2a, +1) in eight games that included scoring his first NHL goal of the season in a 6-1 win over Toronto.
In returning to Charlotte, Boychuk still leads the AHL with 10 power-play goals while ranking third in team scoring (14g, 13a), and has an active five-game point streak (5g, 3a) at the AHL level that he returns to continue from.
Sutter’s second stint with the Hurricanes this season saw him tally a goal and an assist in five games with a plus-one rating while helping the team to plug holes in the roster with players like Nash on the IR.
While starting the season with Carolina and playing in 12 games not recording any points, he was assigned to Charlotte and made his presence felt recording 14 points (2g, 12a) in 22 games before being recalled by the Hurricanes on an emergency basis on Jan. 2.