Friday, October 30, 2009

Wings Lose Filppula to Broken Wrist

It was an expensive shootout loss to the Oilers on Thursday night, as the Red Wings lost forward Valtteri Filppula to a broken wrist, which will keep him out of the line-up for 6-to-8 weeks. Filppula suffered the injury after a hit along the boards from the Oilers' Gilbert Brule, in what was just finishing one's check. He will now join Johan Franzen on the Red Wings' long-term injury list.

In the first 11 games of the season, Filppula scored two goals and four assists for the Red Wings, not leaving himself in the best of shape fantasy-wise at the time of the injury. He will leave a pretty big whole in the forward corps of the Wings, as he can log upwards of 21 minutes of ice-time and make them solid minutes. However, he does have a poor plus/minus rating, at a -6, which is somewhat indicative of the Wings early season record as well.

ImplicationsFilppula was an 11th round pick by John B. in the Draft this season, going 171st overall. With only six points to start the season, his draft placement does seem to be about right. There is likely a pretty good chance that he will be a drop in the Waiver Draft in a few weeks time.

On the Sheet, Filppula is listed in Box 7 and was tied for the second-best player in the box, sitting four points behind Patrick Sharp for the best player. Filppula was taken three times and would likely be a good candidate for a trade, especially for a player like Sharp.

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