Sean Monahan Withdraws From World Cup; Vincent Trocheck To Replace

Another player has fallen to the injury bug and has to withdraw from the World Cup.  Sean Monahan has suffered a back strain in training and will be unable to play in the upcoming tournament, according to the team twitter. Monahan is expected to have recovered in time to participate in the team training camp, and should be ready for the start of the season. Tom Gulitti of NHL.com reports that Vincent Trocheck will be his replacement on Team North America.

“It’s definitely disappointing”, said Monahan in the release, also noting that because the tournament is in Toronto, about a thirty-minute drive from his hometown of Brampton, he was looking forward to playing for friends and family that don’t get to see him very often.

Monahan though, is just too important to the Flames to risk any further injury at what is from their perspective a meaningless tournament.  He put up another 60+ point season last year and is still just 21-years old.  Just signed to a whopping seven year, $44.625MM extension, Monahan is the present and future of the Flames organization alongside still-unsigned Johnny Gaudreau.