Chicago Blackhawks prospect Phillip Danault could miss about three months after undergoing hip surgery, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Lazarus reports.
(Do note that the Blackhawks haven’t confirmed or denied the 22-year-old’s status just yet.)
Danault saw his first bit of NHL action in 2014-15, failing to score a point in two regular season games.
The 26th pick of the 2011 NHL Draft spent the last three seasons with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, where one would assume he’d likely end up for much (if not all) of 2015-16.
Whenever he blossoms, the Blackhawks would like him to remind fans of Marcus Kruger, as CSNChicago.com reported back in July 2014:
“They told me they want me to be a Kruger,” Danault said. “So I’ll try to mold myself after Marcus Kruger.”
The Blackhawks still don’t have Kruger locked up to a new contract, so they might ask Danault to do that impression sooner rather than later. Before that happens, he’d need to have a clean bill of health, of course.