Matt Puempel re-called, Fredrik Claesson returned to Binghamton Senators

The Ottawa Senators made a pair of transactions this morning: LW Matt Puempel was re-called from Binghamton, while D Fredrik Claesson was returned.

The #Sens have recalled forward Matt Puempel from Binghamton (AHL) and have reassigned defenceman Fredrik Claesson to the #BSens.

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 21, 2016

The Puempel call-up is hardly surprising, considering that both Kyle Turris and Mike Hoffman are game-time decisions for tonight's game. With both sitting out yesterday's practice, the Sens only had 11 forwards participate in practice, so this was a prudent move. Puempel, the 24th-overall pick of the 2011 entry draft, has 24 points in 29 games this season in Binghamton. He has three goals and an assist in 24 career NHL games.

The Claesson return was more surprising, since Marc Methot has been ruled out of a second-straight game. This gives the Sens six healthy defencemen, one of whom is Jared Cowen. Cowen will draw back in tonight, and he's said that he expects people to be watching him closely tonight.

I can only think of two reasons Claesson was sent back: one, is that team didn't think he was a better option than Chris Wideman, and decided it was more worthwhile to send Claesson back to Binghamton where he could play top-pairing minutes. The fact that Claesson was typically paired with Erik Karlsson means he may not have been trusted much. The second option is that the team is nearing a trade of Cowen, but need him to play to garner interest. Claesson likely would've been scratched for the length of Cowen's showcase, so the team returned him to Binghamton until a trade could be finalized.

Why was Fredrik Claesson returned to Binghamton?