Vanek Out "Weeks"

When it rains, it pours for some teams. Buffalo joined that list with yet another injury on Tuesday night. Thomas Vanek has been lost to the team for an indefinite period of time, due to an upper-body injury suffered in the Sabres' 6-2 victory over the Red Wings. Vanek looked to have suffered the injury when he fell to the ice, scoring his second goal of the game, as he favoured his arm (or shoulder) on the bench before leaving for the dressing room, not to return to the game. Coach Lindy Ruff suggested that Vanek will be out for 'weeks' instead of days, so this could be quite the injury.

Vanek was enjoying a pretty good start to the season, scoring three goals in the first four games, but now his numbers will be on hold with this injury. Before last season, Vanek was known to be a durable player, playing in 81, 82 & 82 games in his first three seasons with the Sabres, so he shouldn't be considered injury-prone by any measure. This injury comes as more of a stroke of bad luck.

If the injury is in the shoulder department or even a broken arm, we may be looking at least six weeks before he's back to the ice and possibly another week before he's back up to regular game shape. That being said, we really don't know what the injury is yet, so we may not want to rush to conclusions, but it may still be a good idea to switch him out, if you picked him in Box 19, per chance. Wayne, on the other hand, won't be so lucky in the Draft, as we're still a number of weeks away from our first waiver draft.