Downie Suspension Over Tomorrow?

[The Comish]

I spotted this in Yahoo Sports under Recent Injuries & Transactions:

11/22 S.Downie, PHI, RW Suspension Over

While it\'s true that the Flyers have now played 20 games, they have been playing a recall shell game with Downie in order to mimimize the cap hit.

Of course they were forced to deal with another lengthy suspension to Boulerice and a concussion to Gagne.

I found this on the Flyers home page:

http://flyers.nhl.com/team/app/?serv...cid=gam_tra_45

It looks like Downie has been recalled for 17 games so far and the earliest he could play for the Flyers would be Nov 28th in Carolina.

It\'s interesting to note that by not recalling Downie for every game, it avoids a potential 24 Nov match in Ottawa. No doubt the the Flyers and the NHL want to sweep the Downie incident under the rug and keep his potential return from turning into a media circus. This has all been very quiet and the end of his suspension hasn\'t been mentioned anywhere that I\'ve seen before now.

An update on Downie\'s AHL numbers. After serving his one month AHL suspension, Downie has put up 8-1-8-9 numbers with a respectable plus-6 and 26 penalty minutes.

It will be interesting to see how the Flyers handle the end of Downie\'s suspension and what the media has to say if/when they recall Downie.

[Dobber]

Good find - thanks for this.

[hammer2003]

If/when Downie comes back what is his value in roto leagues that count PIMs? Could he be a Carcillo type (40 pts / 200+ PIMs likely) or probably won\'t get enough ice time?

[The Comish]

Hi hammer,

Downie won\'t rack up the penalty minutes like Carcillo, but will outpoint him. Dobber sees 75 points as Downie\'s potential upside and I won\'t argue that. I\'ve watched Downie several times and he has an interesting skill set. He\'s definitely got some skill to go with his abrasiveness.

I wouldn\'t count on Downie for much this season in the NHL, although he is playing well in the AHL (point a game pace). With an injury or further suspensions to the Flyers, I could envision a call up for Downie at some point this year.

My thoughts are that if/when he\'s called up, he\'ll score at a 30-35 point pace and between 100-120 penalty minutes pace. He\'ll get ice time, but it will likely be on the third line in a checking role. He does have enough skill to play on the second PP unit, but Philly is stocked with many talented forwards, so I don\'t see Downie playing on the PP in his first year.