The Vancouver Canucks are still chasing their first win of their season, and now it looks like that chase has been made more difficult. The team has announced that defenseman Travis Dermott has been placed on long-term injured reserve, while defenseman Riley Stillman, who the team recently acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks, has been placed on injured reserve.
This news comes as an especially painful blow in the case of Dermott, as just a few days ago Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said that Dermott was progressing well. Dermott suffered a concussion in September, and while no specific details on the injury were mentioned, this placement does suggest that Dermott’s recovery process has worsened since Boudreau issued that update.
Dermott, 25, was acquired by the Canucks last season via a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Canucks’ defensive lineup has been ravaged by injuries so far this season, meaning a healthy Dermott could have served as a crucial addition to their beleaguered blueline. Now, they’ll likely have to wait even longer as Dermott works his way back from his injury.
As for Stillman, he had been dealing with an undisclosed injury that was classified as day-to-day. With no word on the nature of the injury or the expected length of his absence, the immediate future of the Canucks’ blueline is made all the more cloudy.
Stillman is far from an elite defenseman, but he has played in five games this season and has over 100 NHL games under his belt, something that cannot be said about Jack Rathbone or Guillaume Brisebois.
These injuries are far from an ideal development for a Canucks team desperate to register its first win of their season, and they likely mean that Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tyler Myers will be asked to weather significant minutes in Vancouver’s next stretch of games.
While much has been said about how poorly the Canucks have been played recently, perhaps the single biggest issue they face is the wave of injuries they’ve been hit by. With two more defensemen now seemingly out of the picture for at least a little while, those injury issues have only grown.
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