The Edmonton Oilers have announced that they have sent rookie forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins home for some more medical evaluation, after suffering an upper-body on the weekend on Long Island. The Oilers will not say what the injury or how bad it is, but they have said that the young rookie will now miss the remainder of the road trip, as he gets looked at by team doctors in their own facilities. In order to call up a player in his absence, the Oilers have placed Nugent-Hopkins on the injured reserve, which coincides with their return to Edmonton, meaning he'll be out the entire week, which is the minimum for anyone placed on the IR.
On Wednesday, Nugent-Hopkins goes into the evening's action in 37th spot in pool scoring, which is one of the more impressive rankings for rookies over the last few seasons, as he has 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points in 38 games this season. He was on more than a point-per-game pace for the first segment of the season, but the team and his own play has dropped off somewhat since then, seeing the team fall out of the Western Conference playoff picture and Nugent-Hopkins falling out of the point-per-game bracket. Still, he has a very good shot at the rookie of the year nod, especially if we're looking strictly at scoring.
It has been a tough few weeks for Wayne H. in the pool, as our pool leader for 10 of 14 weeks this season, has now dropped down to 3rd place, thanks in large parts to the injuries that his team has suffered. For a couple of weeks, Wayne held a 15-point lead in the pool to finish weeks, but now sits 12 points back of 1st place and has now lost one of his top forwards. This could be a very significant hit to his season, especially since he only sits 3 points up on 4th place.
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