Kunitz Has Torn Abdomen

It's getting awfully close to calling it a lost season for Penguins forward, Chris Kunitz, as he is now expected to miss the next 4-to-6 weeks after he undergoes surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn abdominal muscle. Kunitz already has missed 13 games due to a lower-body injury this season, which was only supposed to cost the forward a couple weeks. The next six weeks will likely cost Kunitz 19 games from the schedule.

In 30 games with the Penguins this season, Kunitz has 6 goals and 14 assists, which wasn't a bad scoring pace, but with playing with the likes of Bill Guerin and Sidney Crosby for most nights, you may argue otherwise.

Last season, Kunitz finished 113th in pool rankings and before the start of this week, he ranked 215th in pool scoring. Injuries will cost him some more spots in the ranks.

Well, this sort of injury will make him an immediate drop in the Draft for Clayton this time around. The Waiver Draft will go next week, where the players will be activated in just under two weeks time. So, Clayton, who sits 5th in the standings, will be without one of his key forwards for the next couple weeks, until he can replace him properly.

On the Sheet, Kunitz is a Box 19 forward and was taken once from that position. This is the same box that Nathan Horton, Steven Stamkos and Alex Semin occupies, so there is plenty of options for a switch in that box.