Seattle Kraken forward Jacob Melanson suffered an upper body injury in his team’s 6-1 win over Calgary on October 1st. However, in the days that followed, it became evident that this wasn’t just a run of the mill hockey-talk “upper body” injury. On Saturday the club announced that Melanson had been diagnosed as having suffered an anterior mediastinum hematoma with vascular pseudo aneurysm.
The medical mouthful refers to a serious medical condition in which a collection of blood pools in the front part of the chest cavity. This is then compounded by a false aneurysm of a blood vessel, which carries a high risk of causing serious internal bleeding if it were to rupture.
“He’s recovering,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert told reporters Sunday. “Upper body and the news is the news. We certainly miss him when he’s not in the lineup.”
“I think certainly what you do in any professional sport is you count on your medical team to make the right decisions. I think our team did a really good job and acted appropriately and promptly and, fortunately, he’s OK.”
Originally selected 131st overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Melanson recorded 5 points (2G, 3A) across 36 games for the Kraken last season. The 23 year old was expected to play a depth role for the team this year, but will now be closely monitored by the team’s medical staff as they gradually ramp up his off ice activities for an eventual return to hockey.
The Kraken are 3-2 on the season and are next in action on Sunday at 5pm ET against the Washington Capitals.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.