Month Without Sharp

It didn't take long for the Chicago Blackhawks to enlighten us all about how long they expect to be without star forward Patrick Sharp, as they expect the forward to be out of the line-up for 3-to-4 weeks with an undisclosed upper-body injury. The injury is believed to be a forearm/wrist injury, which he suffered in Sunday night's game against the Red Wings.  The details have been vague, but there seems to be a pretty good idea out there of what is wrong with him, but the real concern was how long he'd be out for and at least we know that.

Sharp has been very good for the Blackhawks again this season, already up to 20 goals and 20 assists in 42 games for the club, so this will be a big offensive hole to fill for the club, up until the beginning of January.  Sharp's 40 points are good enough for him to be ranked 24th in pool scoring, which would have made him into a high 2nd round pick in this year's pool draft, but with the way scoring has been going at the moment, he'll likely see a significant drop to that number before too long.

Sharp was taken 72nd overall in the draft by Wes M., who managed to get a pretty good deal, when he was taken.  Unfortunately for Wes, this injury now brings his total of players on the shelf up to four, along with Jordan Staal, Andrei Markov and Andrej Sekera, so improving on his 18th place position seems a bit far-fetched at the moment.  A tough year has just gotten a little bit tougher.