Today is the day, 25 days into the regular season, that Travis Dermott and Zach Hyman can return to the lineup if they are healthy.
Both Dermott and Hyman have been regulars at practices lately, and Dermott drew in as a placeholder in the Thursday scrimmages for Morgan Rielly, who took the practice day off. That argues in favour of the switch for Dermott happening today.
Last night in the win over the Sharks, Kevin Gravel, playing the 3LD spot we assume Dermott will take over, played 9:09 of all-situations time, barely more than Nick Shore. It doesn’t seem sustainable to have one defender playing fourth line minutes.