Saturday, November 16, 2013

Knee Injury Sidelines Gaborik

On Friday afternoon, the Columbus Blue Jackets placed scoring forward Marian Gaborik on the Injured Reserve, due to a severe knee sprain. The initial prognosis is that the winger is now scheduled to be out of the line-up for the next 4-to-6 weeks with the injury, which will likely cost him on the excessive side of 10 games.  Gaborik was hurt this week, but his offense was already hurting in about the five or six games before the injury.

Gaborik got off to a pretty hot start, scoring a point per game in his first 10 games or so, but since has really dried up his offense.  Heading into Saturday's action, Gaborik was unofficially ranked 141st in pool scoring with 5 goals and 6 assists in 17 games played for Columbus.

Gaborik is a prime member of my annual Injury Prone List and even as it was looking like he was stringing some good seasons together, he is always a risk for getting hurt, but he can be a rewarding player, if he can stay healthy as well.  Unfortunately, this injury won't bode well for his listing next Fall.

ImplicationsDespite being on the list, Clayton was set to get a pretty good bargain on Gaborik this year, having taken him in the 6th round, 127th overall.  Gaborik wasn't far off his current pool ranking and was off to that hot start, but now that he is scheduled to be out more than a month, he is now prime dropping material for the Waiver Draft next week.

With that being said, Clayton will miss out on the weekend and next week without Gaborik, but he does have a hot team going into Saturday, having a share of the lead for the Mover & Shaker going into Saturday's action, but only has nine projected games left to be played.

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