Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Scechnikov’s season is in doubt following an injury sustained in his team’s 4-0 loss to Vegas on Saturday.
The 22 year old is feared to have suffered a torn ACL, and could require season ending surgery. Both club and player are seeking second opinions following additional imaging on Tuesday.
“Andrei had an MRI on Monday afternoon, and had a consultation with our team doctors,” said general manager Don Waddell. “In the interest of being thorough, we are continuing to gather information along with Andrei to make the best decision for his health. We will provide further information after a decision is made.”
The 5th year player currently sits at 55pts (23G, 32A) through 64 games this season for the division leading Hurricanes. Carolina (43-14-8) is in the midst of a dogfight for the Metropolitan Division crown with the New Jersey Devils. Both clubs currently sit at 94pts, though the Hurricanes currently have a game in hand.
At the time of his injury, Svechnikov was tied for 2nd for points on the year, trailing only Martin Necas for the team lead. The Russian born winger recorded 9pts in his previous 9 games prior to being injured in the contest against the Golden Knights.
The injury itself looked innocent enough as it occurred on a non-contact play. The club believes the right winger may have hit a rut in the ice, but won’t issue any definitive statements as to what caused the damage to Svechnikov’s knee.
Carolina is already without the services of Max Pacioretty who tore his achilles tendon earlier this year, and can ill afford to lose another star player in the tightly contested Eastern Conference.
“Injuries in our game are unfortunately a big part of it,” Waddell said. “Probably post trade deadline, a week later or whatever it is, makes it a little harder. We can’t go back now. We’ve got to look forward. Hockey is a team game. It’s not an individual sport, so we’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour echoed his GM’s sentiments, telling reporters “I hate it for him more than anything because he’s worked so hard to get to this point of the year when it’s fun…He’s not going to be able to be part of it going forward. It’s tough.”
The Hurricanes are next in action on Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets in a 7pm ET game between two playoff bound clubs.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Doug Kerr. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.