Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Liles Suffers Concussion, Season Ends Early

The incredible amount of injuries in Colorado continues to grow, as their top defenseman, John-Michael Liles suffered a concussion on Sunday and due to the NHL protocol for concussions, he'll have to spend at least a week on the shelf, which will end his regular season.  A very unfortunate way to end a season, but that just seems to be the breaks this season.

Liles finishes his 2011 campaign with 6 goals and 40 assists in 76 games with the Avalanche, going into Tuesday night in 137th in pool scoring, 12th among all defensemen this year.  With only a few games left for most teams, Liles shouldn't drop too much further in the rankings, due to inactivity, but I can see a couple of players immediately behind him that should get by before the end of the season.  Nevertheless, Liles has re-established himself this year as reasonable offensive defenseman option for the hockey pool.

ImplicationsThe mounting injuries are not only adding up for the Avalanche, they continue to add up for Neil B. in the draft pool this year.  The loss of Liles won't have a great effect on his final standing, as Neil has a pretty good buffer between 17th and 19th and will finish the year in 18th.

Link to the Injury/News Page

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