Edmonton Oilers place star forward on injured reserve after tough start to season
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The Oilers placed Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on injured reserve Thursday with a lower-body injury. He missed the opener and is expected to be out about two weeks.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is headed to injured reserve, and the Edmonton Oilers will have to get through the early part of the schedule without one of their most trusted forwards.
The team made the move Thursday, two days after he sat out the season opener against the Vancouver Canucks with a lower-body injury.
TSN passed along the news earlier today, and the expected timeline is roughly two weeks.
What happened before the opener
Nugent-Hopkins got hurt right at the end of practice Monday, which left the Oilers little time to adjust.
He had spent training camp centering the second line, so his absence forced some real changes up front, including Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl being split up.
The 33-year-old was productive last season, putting up 20 goals and 36 assists for 56 points in 72 games.
Edmonton can't easily replace that kind of production, especially on special teams, where he skated regularly.
He averaged over 19 minutes a night too, which is a lot of ice time to hand off.
The Oilers' roster crunch
He isn't the only name on the list.
Matt Savoie was moved to long-term injured reserve and so was defenseman Alec Regula, while the club recalled forward Josh Samanski from the Bakersfield Condors under emergency conditions.
Edmonton faces Vancouver again Thursday before hosting the Seattle Kraken on Saturday, so the next few games will show how deep this group really is.
Colton Dach and Owen Michaels are expected to see bigger roles down the middle, and Vasily Podkolzin is set to take his spot on the top power play unit.
It's early, but the Oilers are already leaning on depth.
Two weeks from Opening Night puts a possible return around mid-October, and fans will be watching closely to see how Edmonton holds up until then.
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