The Blackhawks may be without its brightest young star before training camp opens.
During Wednesday’s pre-tournament game against Russia, Kirby Dach left the game in the third period with an apparent upper-body injury and did not return.
The injury happened when Dach collided with a Russian player and immediately began favoring his right arm. After a quick look down in the area of his right hand/wrist, Dach skated to the bench and headed to the locker room.
Here’s the best available look at what happened to Dach:
Canada’s captain, Kirby Dach, left the ice and went straight to the dressing room after this play. pic.twitter.com/ZEzfG66aad
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 24, 2020
Dach, who was named Canada’s captain before the tournament, was skating at right wing on the top line for Canada’s star-studded World Juniors team.
As the game ended, the TV broadcast said that Dach was being taken in for X-rays.
After coming to the Blackhawks as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Dach earned a roster spot early in the 2019-20 NHL season and appeared in 64 regular season games with eight goals and 15 assists. He saw an expanded role during the postseason, skating in all nine games with one goal and five assists while averaging 19:24 of ice time per game, trailing only Patrick Kane among Blackhawks forwards in that statistic.
[CHRISTMAS EVE UPDATE] No official word yet, but TSN’s Bob McKenzie suggests that Dach will be missing significant time:
No official word yet from @HockeyCanada but Kirby Dach is out of the WJC because of the injury suffered yesterday. So Team 🇨🇦 loses its captain. CHI doctors still assessing Dach’s injury but he will be missing NHL time as well.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) December 24, 2020
[CHRISTMAS EVE UPDATE II] It’s a fracture, also per McKenzie:
A basic fracture generally results in a 4 to 6 week or 6 to 8 week absence but if surgery is required it could be considerably longer than that. But no decision on that has been made yet.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) December 24, 2020
Back in 2011, Patrick Kane underwent surgery for a wrist fracture in July and was expected to be out 6-8 weeks. The did not prevent him from playing in all 82 games during the 2011-12 season.