By Mitch Bach

Tigers Nassen to miss 6-8 weeks with UBI

Jan 4, 2018 | 2:31 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Linus Nassen will miss the next 6-8 weeks healing up a broken bone near his wrist.

The Swedish rookie defenceman for the Medicine Hat Tigers sustained the injury in Monday’s overtime win against the Kootenay ICE.

“He went in fairly hard on the boards, going back to retrieve a puck,” said Tigers head coach & GM Shaun Clouston. “It was quite sore. He didn’t play the last shift or two in Kootenay, didn’t play in overtime, and then got an x-ray.”

Clouston says Nassen sustained a small fracture of the radial bone in his arm, located close to his wrist. 

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The 19-year-old, drafted in the first round of the CHL Import Draft last summer, has one goal and 21 assists in his first season in North America.

Drafted by the Florida Panthers in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, Nassen began the 2017-18 slotted alongside David Quenneville as the top defensive pairing.

Nassen has since dropped back, lining up with Dalton Gally in a second/third line role for the last few weeks but remains an influential presence on the power-play. Kristians Rubins has taken over top-line duties with Quenneville.

Clouston doesn’t expect any significant changes to the d-pairings with Nassen’s absence.

“For a while we’ve been going with Rubins and Quenneville,” he said, noting Joel Craven, Dylan MacPherson and Cole Clayton were juggled around in Wednesday’s game in Calgary. “We’ll move guys around to round it all out.”

Clouston says although the loss of the speedy, stay-at-home defenceman isn’t easy to stomach, he admits the news is better than what was first thought.

“There are some smaller bones in the wrist that can be major problems,” he continued. “Hopefully with a month in a cast, and a week or two of getting ready, he’s back in five or six weeks.”

Medicine Hat is dealing with a plethora of injuries at the moment. Mason Shaw remains out indefinitely with a torn ACL, but continues to make strides towards a return late this season, while Hayden Ostir is still weeks away from a return to action with a broken finger. 

Rookie Josh Williams, who broke his collar-bone in early November at the World U17 Hockey Challenge, is close to returning, now listed as day-to-day. He’s been practicing with the club with a non-contact jersey this week.