Kraken place defenseman Jamie Oleksiak on IR

It turns out that bringing goaltender Magnus Hellberg back Thursday wasn’t Seattle’s only roster activity of the day. Root Sports’ Scott Malone relays that the Kraken have placed defenseman Jamie Oleksiak on injured reserve while also sending goaltender Joey Daccord back to AHL Coachella Valley as he is no longer listed on the team’s active roster.

Oleksiak suffered a lower-body injury in Tuesday’s game against Nashville and it’s evidently one that will keep him out for at least a week due to the IR placement. The 29-year-old was off to a nice start to his season with three goals and two assists in his first 14 games while logging 18:33 per night, good for third among Seattle’s blueliners. Cale Fleury has been up with the team all season as the reserve defender but has been scratched for every game. Now will likely get a chance to see some game action. He played in nine contests with the Kraken last season. Seattle doesn’t have enough cap space to recall a seventh defender for now, although Chris Driedger could easily be moved to LTIR to free up some short-term flexibility on that front.

As for Daccord, he has been up with the big club for the last few weeks with Philipp Grubauer on injured reserve. However, he only made one appearance during that time. His demotion could mean that another team placed a claim on Hellberg, in which case Seattle wouldn’t be able to loan him to the Firebirds. Alternatively, management might feel that the 26-year-old is simply better served getting into some game action having been on the bench for the bulk of his time with the Kraken.