Hurricanes Reassign Charles-Alexis Legault

6:15 PM: Legault has been re-assigned to Chicago within hours, per the team. Carolina moves forward with six healthy defensemen on their roster, suggesting Gostisbehere could return Saturday against New Jersey. Meanwhile, Legault won’t play against his hometown team, the prompt ticket back to Chicago a result of their schedule; he should be all set for the Wolves’ game in Iowa tomorrow night.

3:56 PM: The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that they have recalled defenseman Charles-Alexis Legault from their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Legault, 22, made his NHL debut earlier this season but has spent most of the year at the AHL level.

With veteran defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere still sidelined by a lower-body injury, the Hurricanes had just six healthy defensemen on their active roster before this recall. Bringing Legault to the NHL gives the team a seventh defenseman and therefore cover in case an unexpected injury occurs. The Hurricanes are playing against the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal tonight. While this was surely not the primary consideration motivating this recall, today’s transaction does give Legault the opportunity to travel for, and potentially dress for, tonight’s game.

Because that is happening in Montreal, it is a game in which his current team is competing against the NHL team nearest to where he grew up. With just eight NHL games on his resume, today’s recall could allow for Legault, a Laval native, to play an NHL game in front of scores of friends and family for the first time in his career. Even if he doesn’t dress, getting recalled for a road trip to his home city is still a nice reward for a player who has diligently worked his way up Carolina’s organizational depth chart this season.

The right-handed defenseman is in his second full season as a professional, spending two years at Quinnipiac University before turning pro. While there, he was a teammate of Skyler Brind’Amour, his current teammate with the Wolves and the son of Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour. He has been a clear developmental success story for the team as a 2023 fifth-round pick, and offers some defensive upside thanks to his size and strength. (He stands 6’4″, 220 pounds)

If he can continue to get more comfortable with the puck, he could eventually compete for a more permanent NHL role down the line. He is a regular penalty killer at the AHL level, and was the organization’s No. 22 prospect entering the season according to the team at Elite Prospects.