Blood Clot Ends Dupuis' Regular Season

Doing some of the reading on Wednesday morning, seeing that Pascal Dupuis wasn't feeling well on Monday, saw a doctor and missed Tuesday's game in Montreal, likely due to an illness, didn't have me really concerned, especially with a lot of the bugs that have been biting players so far this season. The Penguins had a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, which announced that Dupuis has now been sidelined for at least six months, due to a blood clot that was found in his lungs.

Dupuis will have to undergo some blood thinning treatments, much like the treatments that former teammate Tomas Vokoun had to undergo last season, something that players cannot play through from a health and safety standpoint.

It sounds like six months is a optimistic suggestion of a timeframe, however, as there doesn't appear to be any concrete evidence that Dupuis will even be ready around then.  Vokoun has been told that he will likely be in need of these treatments for the rest of his life, which has likely ended his career and that has to be a concern for the 35-year old forward.

If Dupuis can come back in six months, that would put him back in May, possibly in the second round of the playoffs, but it would not be safe to bet on that.

This is a pretty tough loss for the Penguins, who have enjoyed some good production from the veteran winger this year already, as he has picked up 6 goals and 5 assists in 16 games.  As of Wednesday morning, he was ranked 132nd overall in pool scoring.

He became quite the steal in the Preseason Waiver Draft, when Wyllie picked him up for an injured player, before the season even started.  Dupuis was one of his better forwards, which is bad news for him, since his team has now sunk to 20th overall, only 12 points from the bottom.  The Waiver Draft is only a couple weeks away and this will be an immediate drop in the opening round when it all goes down.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.