Seattle Kraken forward André Burakovsky will be out on a week-to-week basis, head coach Dave Hakstol said on Friday. (via the Seattle Times’ Kate Shefte) Hakstol added that Burakovsky’s current injury is entirely unrelated to the one that kept him out of the Kraken lineup from late October to early December.
Burakovsky appears to have suffered the injury in Thursday’s game, or at least aggravated it, as he only played a little over nine minutes of ice time, including just two shifts in the game’s third period.
Missing even more time would be unwelcome news for both Burakovsky and the Kraken, as their $5.5M scoring forward has already missed multiple weeks due to an upper-body injury.
When healthy, Burakovsky is among the Kraken’s most deadly offensive threats.
But he has struggled with injuries throughout his NHL career and especially since signing in Seattle. He produced at a 65-point 82-game pace last season, his debut year with the Kraken, but only ended up playing in 49 games. He also missed the entirety of the Kraken’s playoff run, a trip to the postseason that yielded an upset victory over the Colorado Avalanche, Burakovsky’s former team.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion had returned to the lineup to play second-line minutes alongside Jared McCann and Alexander Wennberg, but now with this new injury that line will have to find a new player to fill Burakovsky’s role.
It’s especially poor news given the state of Seattle’s offense. They currently rank fourth-to-last in the NHL in goals scored per game with 2.59. Key producers from last season such as Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers and eight-time 20-goal scorer Jordan Eberle have seen their offensive numbers take a steep decline.
The Kraken are already desperate to dig out of the early hole they’ve dug into this season, and this new stroke of extremely poor injury luck will undoubtedly damage those efforts.
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