Goligoski Breaks Thumb

Bad news out of Dallas for the Stars, as Alex Goligoski suffered a broken thumb in their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night, which will now force the top-pairing defenseman out of the line-up for upwards of four weeks.  Goligoski suffered the injury in the 1st period and was not out for the 2nd period with the injury and on Saturday morning, news dropped that he will now be out for at least a month with the injury.

Even with Dallas' early season success, Goligoski hasn't exactly been lighting up the scoreboard from the blueline this season, as he has only registered 2 goals and 4 assists in 15 games this year.  Of course, Goligoski is not relied solely on his offense, as he does bring a lot more skill on the defensive end of the ice as well, but it is somewhat surprising that he hasn't been able to post more points, while his team leads the Western Conference standings.

As of Saturday afternoon, I have Goligoski pegged in at 273rd in the pool rankings, which isn't too bad, as he is lumped together with quite a few good defensemen, but it still doesn't really adjust my level of surprise.  Unfortunately, a week out of the line-up will likely drop him down much further, but if the Stars can maintain their level of proficiency in the league, he could still come back to a very hot team.

In the draft, this will be yet another blow to Peter H.'s team, which is already dealing with a couple of long-term injuries at the moment in Tyler Ennis and Kristian Huselius.  Peter is currently in 12th place, 5 points out of the top 10, despite those two injuries and another injury will only set him back, just a little bit further.

Peter took Goligoski with the 145th selection in the draft this year, so you can see how high his expectations were going into the year, plus the big rush on defensemen didn't help that either.