Bjugstad Done After Back Surgery

It appears that the lower-body injury that had kept Florida forward Nick Bjugstad out of the lineup for a couple games was far worse than initially expected.

On Friday afternoon, the team announced that the team's leading goal-scorer will now miss the remainder of the regular season after undergoing successful back surgery.  It sounds like, if the Panthers make the playoffs, 3 points out going into the last couple weeks, Bjugstad won't be available for the Spring Dance, but he is expected to be 100%, come September.

In 72 games played this season, Bjugstad finishes his year with 24 goals and 43 points, which at this time, is good enough for 3rd on the team in pool points (behind Roberto Luongo and Jonathan Huberdeau) and 126th overall in league pool scoring.

Bjugstad was a fairly consistent contributor to Brian's team in the pool this season and that would be more than he asked for out of his 10th round pick, 227th overall.  Even without him in the last couple weeks of the season, this should still work out to be a big bargain pick.

Unfortunately for Brian, his season might have been hurt pretty badly by this injury, as his team had already dropped off, but it gets worse with this news.  Brian sits in 10th place, midway through the night on Friday and could go either way with a good or bad string of nights.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.