Injury Updates: Palat, Hedman, Compher, Andrighetto, Bouwmeester

Lightning winger Ondrej Palat is not recovering well from the lower-body injury he sustained in late October.  Accordingly, the team has decided to shut him down for a couple of weeks with the hope that some rest will help the issue, notes Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link).  However, he’s not expected to need surgery.  The Czech winger has yet to score in nine games this season but has collected five assists.

Meanwhile, Smith adds that defenseman Victor Hedman won’t suit up on Thursday night but is nearing a return to the lineup.  He has been out since sustaining an upper-body injury on October 26th and will be a welcome addition to the Lightning’s back end as their number one blueliner.

More injury notes from around the league:

• Although Avalanche center J.T. Compher is skating on his own, he is not progressing from a concussion he sustained in mid-October, head coach Jared Bednar told Ryan Goulding of the Denver Post. Accordingly, there is no timetable for his return.  The 23-year-old was off to a strong start to his season before the injury, collecting three goals and an assist through his first five games.  Meanwhile, Goulding adds that winger Sven Andrighetto has also resumed skating and could be available to play on their upcoming two-game road trip that begins on Friday.
• Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was listed as a scratch on Tuesday but head coach Mike Yeo indicated to reporters, including Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, that Bouwmeester is still dealing with hip soreness. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him sit for a few games to see if the rest helps with the pain.  It has been a rough couple of seasons for the veteran on the injury front and hip troubles cost him the final 16 games of 2017-18.  Louis has some defensive depth but given Bouwmeester’s situation, it’s unlikely they’ll want to deal from that anytime soon.