Central Notes: Schwartz, Ehlers, Fisher

Blues winger Jaden Schwartz sustained a shoulder injury on Thursday during Canada’s quarterfinal victory over Russia at the World Championships, notes Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  The injury occurred during the third period of the game and he did not return.  The injury will not require surgery but he will miss the final two games of the tournament which wraps up on Sunday.  However, Armstrong noted that this is not believed to be a long-term issue and that he fully expects Schwartz to be ready in time for training camp in September.  He’s far from the only St. Louis player that will be on the mend as defensemen Jay Bouwmeester (hip) and Carl Gunnarsson (knee) as well as wingers Robby Fabbri (knee) and Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder) are all currently recovering from their respective surgeries.

More from the Central:

• Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers’ absence from the lineup in Game Three was not injury-related but rather due to an illness, reports Postmedia’s Ken Wiebe (Twitter link). While he hasn’t skated for the past three days, he is expected to be available and play tonight in Game Four against the Golden Knights.
• Retired Predators center Mike Fisher isn’t ruling out rejoining the Predators in some sort of non-playing role down the road, notes Adam Vingan of The Tennessean. Head coach Peter Laviolette stated that he has encouraged the veteran to think about coaching but that doesn’t appear to be something the 37-year-old is interested in at the moment while GM David Poile hinted that it could be a while before Fisher does decide on a new role.  However, we know that he won’t be unretiring for another late season run as that is something Fisher ruled out following Nashville’s elimination from the playoffs.