The Seattle Kraken, via their PR team, has announced that forward Tye Kartye and defenseman Cale Fleury have been recalled from the AHL this morning. Kartye was with the Coachella Valley Firebirds on a conditioning stint since February 27. Prior to the conditioning stint, Kartye had been a healthy scratch for a couple of games after the 4 Nations Face Off break resumed. There were never any disclosures of injury either behind the conditioning loan. It appeared to mostly be a move to allow the Kraken to try to unlock his game again after struggling to score. As for the Fleury recall, he’s been used previously this season when the Kraken have needed reinforcements on the blueline and has played in 7 NHL games this season, most recently on February 8.
Coming off the heels of yesterday’s trade of Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand to the Tampa Bay Lightning, seeing a morning recall like this gets the gears turning as to whether more players are about to be shipped out ahead of tomorrow’s 12:00 pm PT / 3:00 pm ET trade deadline. If both players slot into the lineup tonight, expect potential trade candidates such as Brandon Tanev or Jamie Oleksiak to be healthy scratched for trade related purposes—or for them to have been traded even before the puck drops tonight in Nashville.
Edit: About 2 hours after the recall, it’s now officially confirmed that Tanev is being healthy scratched in tonight’s contest for trade-related purposes.