UPDATE: Carolina has confirmed the prognosis that van Riemsdyk did undergo surgery on his damaged shoulder on Thursday. However, the team lists his timeline for recovery as four to six months, meaning these is some doubt about whether van Riemsdyk will be healthy for the start of the 2019-20 season.
While the Hurricanes are hopeful that they will get goalie Petr Mrazek and winger Micheal Ferland back for their upcoming third-round series, they won’t be seeing defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk anytime soon. TSN’s Frank Seravalli reports (Twitter link) that the blue liner has undergone shoulder surgery and will miss the next four months.
The injury was sustained during the first shift of the second game of their series against the Islanders and while the full nature of it wasn’t known at the time, head coach Rod Brind’Amour expected that he’d be without van Riemsdyk for a while. It now turns out that they won’t have him available until next season.
The 27-year-old had been a regular on Carolina’s third pairing throughout the regular season and the early going of the playoffs. Haydn Fleury had taken van Riemsdyk’s spot in the lineup after the injury although the team could also turn to rookie Jake Bean, who has been going back and forth between the NHL and AHL in recent days. With a week before the Conference Final gets underway, they’ll have plenty of time to make a decision.
Good thing they are deep at the blue line
Now serving #4 for Carolina… next up, #24…