Glendale, AZ -- Phoenix Coyote fans anticipating Ray Whitney's return to the desert will be disappointed. Whitney, who has been battling a foot injury for the past week, was placed on injured reserve after Friday’s contest and will miss at least four games.

The Coyotes have called up Reilly Smith from Texas of the American Hockey League to replace Whitney. Smith should slide into Whitney’s spot alongside Cody Eakin and Michael Ryder and will be facing off against Coyotes call-up Andy Miele, a teammate of Smith's at the University of Miami.

The Stars may go with Richard Bachman in goal tonight to change their luck in the finales of back-to-back games. Since last season, the Stars are 1-13-2 in the second half of back-to-backs, including 0-2-0 this year.

Glendale, AZ -- For the first time since his hit on Chicago’s Marian Hossa in last year’s playoffs, Raffi Torres will be back on the ice for the Coyotes tonight. Following that hit, Torres was suspended for the first eight games of this season along with 13 playoff games. Now that he's back in the lineup, his energy will be a welcome addition to a Phoenix team that has limped to a 2-4-2 start.

“I'm excited (to play), it's been quite a long time,” Torres said. “I just want to be out there helping the boys out.”

Torres knows that, as a repeat offender when it comes to suspensions, he needs to alter his game. Coach Dave Tippett has spent extended time reviewing film with the wing, who scored 15 goals last season. The goal of these video sessions is to emphasize how Torres can maintain his aggressive edge while curbing the type of hits that cause controversy.

“A bunch (of the video clips) were me running out of position to make a big hit. It's got to be non-existent this year. I can't be running out of position, giving up my man in order to throw a big hit," Torres said. "(Tippett) showed me a bunch of clips where I was thinking puck first and hit second and it worked out, where I got a lot of scoring chances out of it. It's just a matter of me controlling my emotions throughout the game.”

The Montreal Canadiens announced via their Twitter account that defenseman P.K. Subban will make his first appearance of the season Saturday afternoon against the Buffalo Sabres. It will be the 23-year-old's first game action since signing a two-year, $5.75-million contract with the team Monday.

The Canadiens' second-round pick in the 2007 NHL Draft led Montreal in ice time last season before holding out for the first nine days of the 2012-13 campaign as his agent, Don Meehan, and the club negotiated a new contract. Subban quarterbacked the team's power play last season and led the defensemen with 36 points, but Montreal has been surprisingly efficient with the man advantage in Subban's absence. They rank sixth in the League with the man advantage, scoring at a 27.3-percent clip.

"It's coach's decision. We'll see what happens tomorrow," Subban said Friday when asked about his eventual season debut. "I feel great. I've felt good for a while now. I've been skating non-stop for the last two weeks. I'm ready to go but at the end of the day it's not my decision."

Dallas Stars forward Ray Whitney was placed on injured reserve Saturday with a hair-line fracture in his foot and will miss 4-6 weeks, according to Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News.

To take his place on the roster, the Stars recalled Reilly Smith from Texas of the American Hockey League.

Whitney played 20:48 in the Stars' 4-3 shootout win Friday against the Phoenix Coyotes and also took a turn in the shootout. It's believed Whitney has been dealing with this injury since early in the season.

The 40-year-old Whitney leads the team in scoring with six points (two goals, four assists) in eight games.

Smith, 21, is second on the Texas Stars in scoring with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 38 AHL games this season. He has gone scoreless in six games for Dallas this season and is still looking to earn his first career NHL point.

At 8:43 of the Second Period in the Senators/Hurricanes game video review upheld the referee's call on the ice that Jeff Skinner's shot hit the crossbar but did not cross the goal line. No Goal Carolina.

The San Jose Sharks are off to a 7-0 start and Cisco NHL Live talked to the bench boss, Todd McLellan on Friday.

Buffalo Sabres Thomas Vanek already has two five point games this season and joined Cisco NHL Live Friday to talk about his and the teams hot start.

The Colorado Avalanche have placed captain Gabriel Landeskog on injured reserve.

Last season's Calder Trophy winner has been out of the lineup since being injured in a Jan. 26 game against the San Jose Sharks, where he absorbed a heavy hit by defenseman Brad Stuart.

Landeskog, who appeared to take a shoulder to the head, limped toward the dressing room and missed the rest of the first period before returning for the second. He ended up playing 16:23 in that game and spoke to the media afterward.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The heated rivalry between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks rarely needs any extra fuel to spark a fire, but there is plenty of it going into their first meeting of the season Friday.

It will be the first time the teams have played each other since March 21, when Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith hit Canucks forward Daniel Sedin with an elbow to the head, earning a five-game suspension. Sedin sustained a concussion and missed almost a month, and in his absence the Canucks lost the first three games of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series to the Los Angeles Kings.

Sedin and Keith both downplayed the incident Friday morning.

"I don't get angry that much," Sedin said, while insisting several times a win was all that mattered Friday. "It was more disappointment, so that's the only feeling I have. From what I heard he is a great guy and I still believe he is a good guy, that's not going to change. I think when the rivalry gets that heated players maybe do things they shouldn't do, and that was probably the case."

The waiver wire is an ever-changing medium that gives fantasy owners a chance to bolster their rosters at any time. Last Friday, Michael Grabner led the list of key names for owners to consider, but as we close in on the two-week mark since the season began, there an entirely new batch of trending players to take note of.

Sam Gagner

Center - EDM

GOALS: 3 | ASST: 5 | PTS: 8
SOG: 19 | +/-: -3

Sam Gagner (C/RW, Edmonton Oilers)

-Often overlooked because he's situated amongst an array of emerging young forwards in Edmonton, Gagner has made an early statement from a fantasy standpoint with eight points, 10 PIMs and 19 SOG in seven games. The 23-year-old has also logged nearly four minutes per game with the man advantage, displaying proficiency in those situations (5 PPP) for a power-play unit that sports the NHL's third-best conversion percentage (31.4). The dual-eligible forward has been the trendiest fantasy player in the League over the past two days in Yahoo! leagues (over 5,000 adds during that span), so be sure to snatch him while you still can.