The Canucks will be without winger Brock Boeser tonight against Edmonton as he’s still being evaluated for the upper-body injury he sustained on Thursday, shares Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor (Twitter link). After a breakout performance last season that saw him score 40 goals and 33 assists in 81 games, the 27-year-old is off to a nice start offensively this year with six goals and five assists in his first dozen games. It’s a contract year for Boeser so he’ll certainly be hoping to avoid any long-term absence.
Meanwhile, Canucks GM Patrik Allvin shared some updates on a few other players to Batchelor and other reporters. The team is hopeful that forward Dakota Joshua will make his season debut at some point on their current home stand as he continues to work his way back from testicular cancer. Goaltender Thatcher Demko still has no timeline to make his season debut as his knee injury continues to keep him out of the lineup. Lastly, prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki (a speculative recall candidate following the Daniel Sprong trade), tweaked something and won’t be available for AHL Abbotsford tonight which takes him out of the potential recall equation for the time being.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson told reporters including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link) that there is now no timeline for when goaltender Laurent Brossoit will make his debut. Brossoit is dealing with a meniscus injury, one that he was supposed to be back from weeks ago. Richardson likens the injury to Demko’s situation in Vancouver in that it’s going to be difficult to pinpoint a potential return time for him. Brossoit signed a two-year, $6.6MM contract with Chicago in July after a strong season as the backup in Winnipeg.
- While Islanders blueliner Alexander Romanov isn’t expected to play tonight, he will accompany the team on their upcoming Western Canada road trip, relays Ethan Sears of the New York Post (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has missed the last week with an upper-body injury but did skate today. With the Isles already down Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly, they’ll certainly be looking forward to getting Romanov back sooner than later. He’s logging over 21 minutes a night and has a pair of assists in eight games so far this season.
Actually Soderblom has been fairly effective for the Hawks this year compared to last year when he was the worst goalie in the NHL. He has improved but Brossoit was supposed to maybe end up the starter. It was his chance to shine. However it makes no sense to toss him out there until he’s fully healthy. It would be worse if he went out there and trashed it completely.