The Dallas Stars announced this afternoon that the team has placed Steve Ott on injured reserve, retroactive to October 29. With Ott still trying to recover from his hip injury, placing him on injured reserve makes sense -- except that he's the only injured player on the team and can be taken back off IR at any moment now.
Here's where the speculation starts.
The Texas Stars also announced that Ondrej Roman was recalled from the ECHL, although there doesn't seem to be any injuries in Austin that would create this move to be made. What could be in the works is the possibility that the Dallas Stars call up a forward to join them on this road trip, which is why Ott was placed on IR.
Except, the Stars are healthy other than Ott and are still scratching a forward a game. There is concern that perhaps Brenden Morrow might not be able to play tomorrow or Saturday night and this is perhaps a move by the Stars to be proactive and ensure they have a player available to slide into the second line of Morrow can't play.
Matt Fraser and Tomas Vincour are both possibilities, as both are absolutely tearing up the AHL right now for the Texas Stars. Once again, this is pure speculation, but there is some logic behind the thought that the sudden move to put Ott on IR is the first step to possibly seeing Fraser getting his first NHL action. We shall see.