Goalies Danny Taylor and Leland Irving are switching places.
The Calgary Flames recalled Taylor on Saturday morning and assigned Irving to the Abbotsford Heat.
It's the second NHL recall in two weeks for Taylor, while Irving was demoted after making five starts in relief of injured Flames starter Miikka Kiprusoff.
Taylor will partner with Joey MacDonald, claimed off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings last week, in the Flames crease for the time being, and Calgary general manager Jay Feaster said the club wants to take a closer look at the 26-year-old erstwhile Heat keeper.
“When we claimed Joey MacDonald off waivers we did so with the expectation that he would play games for us,” Feaster stated in a press release. “Now that he has seen some game action we intend to use him more.
"By sending Leland to Abbotsford at this time he does not require waivers. We want Leland to go down and work on sharpening his game. At the same time this enables us to continue to evaluate Danny Taylor at the NHL level. Given Kipper’s injury we are undergoing a process of evaluating our other goaltenders and this assignment of Leland and subsequent recall of Danny is in furtherance of that evaluation process.”
Irving posted a 2-1-1 record with a 3.33 goals against average and an .883 save percentage with the Flames. He got the hook just 4:07 into his last start against the St. Louis Blues on Friday, after allowing two goals on four shots.
Taylor didn't see any game action during his initial stint with the Flames last week. He leads the AHL in goals against average at 1.82, to go with a 13-10-1 record and a .929 save percentage.