Dallas Stars: Connor Carrick to IR, Dillon Heatherington Called Up

The Dallas Stars have placed Connor Carrick on injured reserve and called up Dillon Heatherington to take his place on the roster.

Connor Carrick had a strong showing at first with the Dallas Stars, though his hot start cooled off before he was injured.

Carrick went down in last Sunday’s game against the Red Wings after taking a puck to the foot. He hasn’t skated since then, and now he’s on retroactive injured reserve to October 28.

The Stars were looking at some tough decisions since it sounded like Stephen Johns was ready to come back and Carrick was keeping up his solid play, but that’s changed over the past week.

More from Blackout Dallas

• Dallas Stars Traverse City Tournament: Who had great performances?
• Grushnikov and Stankoven lead Dallas Stars to 6-3 win over Columbus
• Dallas Stars prospects look to wrap up tournament with a win
• Burn the tapes: Dallas Stars prospects lose 5-1 to Toronto Maple Leafs
• Dallas Stars look to continue success today against the Maple Leafs

Johns still isn’t ready to come back yet, though he’s on the trip with the team. He’s missed the entire season so far with post-traumatic headaches. When he’s ready to return, Roman Polak will be the most likely candidate to sit, though Julius Honka has always been an option in this organization.

The decision to trade for Carrick right before the season was originally questioned by many fans, but with Johns still out a month into the season, it makes sense that the team looked for a replacement since they weren’t sure how long he’d be.

At this point, the Stars are down to just six healthy defensemen, so Dillon Heatherington‘s getting the call-up from the Texas Stars. He played six games last year, and he was always expected to be first in line for a call-up this season.

Heatherington has played in 10 games with the Texas Stars this season, getting a goal and 4 points while sitting at a +2.

It remains to be seen just how long Carrick and Johns will be out for, but Heatherington’s a solid choice for the Stars to bring in right now. He may not actually get playing time while he’s up, depending on how everyone else is playing.

At this point, Jim Montgomery shouldn’t change the defensive line-up. There’s a strong case to be made that Brett Ritchie should sit next game in favor of Justin Dowling, but the defensive pairings should stay the same for next game. They’ve won the last two games with these six guys, and while they haven’t been perfect, there’s no reason to put Heatherington in on Saturday.

That being said, having Heatherington up and ready to play will provide the Stars an extra defenseman if they need to change things up.

Hopefully Johns and Carrick will be able to get back into the line-up soon, but until then, Heatherington should do a perfectly fine job in their absence.