Some very unexpected news dropped on Thursday night, as the Avalanche announced that mid-season acquisition winger Tomas Fleischmann will now miss the remainder of the regular season after team doctors diagnosed him with a pulmonary emboli. Fleischmann had seen a doctor because of a shortness of breath and further tests had shown that he had this heart ailment, to which he'll have to take blood thinners for several months, a period where he won't be able to play any hockey.
This comes as a pretty big blow to the Avalanche, who have enjoyed some increased offensive success with Fleischmann in the line-up, since being acquired from the Washington Capitals for defenseman Scott Hannan.Fleischmann finishes the season with 31 points (12 goals and 19 assists) in 45 games between the Avalanche and Capitals, thanks in large part to 21 points in 22 games since moving to Colorado. His 31 points was good enough to keep himself in the top 100 this year, but he will now drop significantly, as he will miss the second half of the season, likely only finishing in the top 300.
In the draft, this comes as a significant loss to Clayton C.'s team, who could deal with dropping a couple other players that are not playing well, instead of dropping a guy who was scoring well, like Fleischmann. Unfortunately, the injury does play a bit of a trump card and the loss of Fleischmann will mean that he will go in the second waiver draft and will not be able to produce any more points leading up that, which goes in a couple of weeks.With play already underway on Thursday night, Clayton was situated in 18th place, 8 points up on 19th and 12 points back of 17th, so there is a buffer in between, but how long will either of those last?
Link to the Injury/News Page
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