Some additional injury news to pass along as well in case you missed it yesterday but Max Lajoie's season has come to an early conclusion thanks to a sports hernia that will require surgery. It's a bit of a disappointing end to a solid rookie campaign for Lajoie who appeared in 56 games with the Senators this season recording 15 points (7G, 8A).
"If you had told me at the start of the year that I would have played that many games in the NHL this year, I would have been really surprised," said Lajoie. "I was really happy with my year and it's a good confidence boost for me. I'm excited for a good summer and to come back at 100%."
The recovery timeline has been set for around 6-10 weeks so the good news is that this shouldn't impact his summer training as he prepares for his sophomore season.
"On the positive side of things, they've diagnosed it quickly," said Crawford. "He's going to have the operation and he'll be able to train fully very shortly. It means he'll get a full summer training period and that's really positive because the biggest factor for Max is strength. His strength has to become 'man strength' and when it becomes 'man strength' his intelligence, his shot, his IQ and all those things are at an NHL level. It's just his strength that needs to improve."
Fellow blueliner Erik Brannstrom is currently listed as week-to-week with an upper body injury which will impact his ability to help Belleville down the stretch. Brannstrom has appeared in 2 NHL and 9 AHL games for the organization since being acquired at the deadline and could become ready to return closer to the AHL's post-season.
