Having traded away the likes of Eric Staal, Kris Versteeg and John-Michael Liles, the Carolina Hurricanes were going to be undermanned for the remainder of this season.
Now, they’ll be even more undermanned.
On Tuesday, ‘Canes GM Ron Francis announced that forward Andrej Nestrasil would miss the remainder of the season with an apparent back injury.
Updated: Fractured vertebra, per the club.
Nestrasil has been out of the Carolina lineup since taking a nasty check into the boards from Toronto’s Nazem Kadri last week. Not long after, an update posted to his Facebook page suggested he would be lost for the year.
Acquired off waivers from Detroit last season, Nestrasil has enjoyed a relatively successful campaign in Carolina, registering career highs in games played (55), goals (nine), assists (14) and points (23).
Earlier this year, the 25-year-old signed a two-year, $1.825M extension with the ‘Canes, one that carries through the 2016-17 campaign.