The injuries keep piling up for the Czech Republic in advance of the World Cup of Hockey as both Philadelphia defenseman Radko Gudas and San Jose forward Tomas Hertl will not play as first reported by hokej.cz’s Vaclav Jachin (link in Czech). Gudas is dealing with a wrist injury while Hertl still hasn’t recovered from the knee injury that forced him out of the lineup in the Stanley Cup Final back in June.
Gudas is coming off a strong first season with the Flyers where he provided the team with some grit on the back end. He played in 76 games, collecting 14 points while adding 116 PIMS, 304 hits, and 157 blocked shots. He also played in six postseason contests, being held pointless but he managed to average five hits per game. The 26 year old was rewarded with a four year extension this offseason with a cap hit of $3.35MM.
Philadelphia GM Ron Hextall released the following statement on the Flyers website about the injury:
“Radko Gudas sustained an upper body injury during his offseason training and will be evaluated on a week to week basis. We are hopeful and optimistic that he will not miss any regular season games.”
As for Hertl, he’s coming off the best season of his three year career, recording 21 goals and 25 assists in 81 regular season games for the Sharks. He continued his strong play in the postseason, picking up another 11 points in 20 games to give San Jose some secondary scoring. He inked a two year, $6MM bridge deal back in June.
No replacements have been named at this time. For now, it’s likely that Roman Cervenka, who has added to replace David Krejci yesterday, will move into a regular role with the Czech squad.
[Related: Updated Czech World Cup Roster]
Good news for the Sharks. Dean has to be heaving a BIG sigh of relief.
Great tournament idea just shouldn’t be done so often. Teams pay A LOT to have these guys ready for the season. That should be respected.
Otherwise, go Team North America!
Dean? You’re about 10 years behind the times if you are referring to the Sharks GM.
LOL you are right, Dean, Doug, maybe one day I will get some one’s name right ; )