The Arizona Coyotes may have defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-2 on Wednesday night, however the win was a costly one. Leading scorer Clayton Keller was taken off the ice on a stretcher and transported to a local hospital with a leg injury.
Following the game head coach Andre Tourigny remarked “We know it will be long term…He’ll recover. For now it’s not the injury, it’s the human. It’s Kells the person. He competes so hard. Seeing him in pain and having a significant injury, that’s extremely tough.”
Fans didn’t need to wait long to find out the fate of the star forward as Keller took to Twitter Thursday morning to provide an update:
With just over 5 minutes remaining in the third period, Keller was taken down awkwardly into the boards and remained on the ice for several minutes. As he was being stretchered off, he managed to give fans the thumbs up sign following the scary scene.
Originally drafted 7th overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft by the Coyotes, Keller was enjoying his most productive season as a pro with a career high 28 goals to go along with a team leading 63pts through 67 games.
With only 15 games remaining in what’s essentially another lost year for the Coyotes, it made sense to shut down the talented 23 year old and let him make a full recovery in the offseason. The Coyotes currently sit in 31st place in the league with a 21–41-5 record.
Keller is under contract for another 6 years in the desert, with a cap hit of $7.15M annually. That being said, his name has popped up in trade rumours over the last few weeks as the Coyotes face an uncertain future in Arizona following arena related issues.
Arizona currently plans to play out of the Arizona State University arena through the 2024-25 season, with an additional option for the 2025-26 campaign. With numerous locales making hard pushes for NHL franchises including Quebec City, Kansas City, and Houston, both Keller and the Coyotes franchise face more questions than answers at the moment.
Photo: Pens Through My Lens. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.