Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Suffers ‘Long-Term’ Hand Injury

While there hasn’t been much good NHL news coming out of Edmonton in recent years, Monday night was especially grim. While the Oilers had successfully beaten the Panthers in their visit to Sunrise, center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins came away with a “long-term” hand injury.

Early in the second period, Nugent-Hopkins found himself in the shooting lane during an Oilers penalty kill. He blocked a shot from the Panthers’ Dmitry Kulikov and did not return. Head coach Todd McLellan couldn’t provide any information beyond the fact that he would be out for a while.

Despite only finding the back of the net eight times this season, the former first-overall pick is third on the Oilers with 30 points. The team currently has the worst record in the Western Conference and has been without Connor McDavid, this year’s first-overall pick, since the beginning of November with a broken collarbone.

Some have speculated that Nugent-Hopkins’ injury could give the Oilers motivation to get McDavid back into the line-up ASAP, but McLellan insisted that the rookie won’t be rushed.”He’s not ready,” the coach simply said.

Photo: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in February 2015 by Lisa Gansky via Wikimedia Commons