The Arizona Coyotes announced that Clayton Keller would be missing the rest of Sunday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets due to an upper-body injury.
It’s unclear as to what caused the injury to Keller, 25, but he did leave the game early in the second period and did not return, with the team confirming as much before the third period. There’s no further information on what caused the injury, the severity of it, or how long he will be out of the lineup.
Keller leaves the game with a shot on goal in 8:16 of ice time, with the Coyotes going on to lose the game 4-3 in overtime.
It’s a big loss for the Coyotes, as Keller has easily been the team’s best player with 22 goals and 30 assists for 52 points in 57 games. Assuming his injury doesn’t keep him out of the lineup, he’s on pace for 74 points, which isn’t quite as high as his 86 points in 2022-23, but still at the level of his production in the past three seasons.
Keller was the seventh-overall pick of the Coyotes in the 2016 NHL Draft, playing a three-game stint with the team in the following season before returning to college. He would then go on to get a consistent spot in Arizona’s lineup in 2017, and has spent all eight seasons of his pro career with them.
Keller is currently in the fourth year of an eight-year contract with a $7.15 million cap hit, one he signed as an extension before the 2019-20 season.
The Coyotes currently sit in seventh in the Central Division with a 23-29-5 record, which is 13 points behind the Nashville Predators for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. The Coyotes now find themselves on a 12-game losing streak after the loss to the Jets, which is the longest in franchise history.
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