Erik Gudbranson’s summer of fun in the sun came with a price.
Harvey Fialkov of The Sun-Sentinel reports the Panthers’ young defenseman has been suspended by the team for dislocating his shoulder while wakeboarding in September. While he returned to the ice this week, the revelation that he was hurt while not training to play hockey will cost him as his agent, Mark Guy, tells the Sun-Sentinel.
“If a player can’t pass a physical as a result of a non-hockey related injury then the club has the right to suspend the player. The suspension ends once he’s able to pass the physical and is set to play. He hasn’t been cleared for contact and probably won’t be for approximately another month.”
The Panthers are within their rights to suspend him until he’s healthy and had he gotten hurt while training, the team would be on the hook to both rehab him and pay his contract until he was healthy. That’s obviously not going to happen now.