Wrist injury to sideline Columbus Blue Jackets' Sean Monahan six-to-eight more weeks
The weight that Adam Fantilli carries for the Blue Jackets on his 20-year old shoulders just got heavier.
More: Columbus Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner cleared for contact in shoulder recovery
The team announced Saturday that center Sean Monahan is expected to miss another six to eight weeks after having a “setback” with a wrist injury that occurred Jan. 7 .
“It sucks,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “Do we want Monnie in our lineup? Absolutely, but he’ll get fixed up and people will continue to step up in his absence, and we’ll look forward to him coming back.”
Monahan’s injury, a stretched tendon, was initially hoped to be something he could overcome by immobilizing the wrist for two or three weeks. Now Monahan isn't expected back until mid-March.
Prior to the injury, Monahan was the Blue Jackets’ third-leading scorer with 14 goals, 27 assists and 41 points in 41 games. He anchored a top forward line that became one of the most productive in the NHL with Dmitri Voronkov and Kirill Marchenko at the wing positions.
Fantilli, the third pick in the 2023 NHL draft , has taken over that role in Monahan’s absence and has shown encouraging signs of growth. Despite struggling to win faceoffs, a common plight of young NHL centers, he's added six goals, five assists and 11 points in 10 games as Monahan's fill-in.
That includes his first NHL hat trick last week in a 5-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs , a memorable night with a large contingent of family and friends from his hometown of Nobleton, Ontario, in attendance.
Monahan, meanwhile, continues to be missed on important draws. He won 51.5% of his faceoffs before the injury, and took the majority of draws on power-plays, penalty-kills and during late-game situations. Boone Jenner took the majority of those faceoffs the past few years, but the Jackets' captain is still recovering from surgery Oct. 9 to repair a shoulder injury.
Jenner isn’t expected to play until late February, so the top center role belongs to Fantilli for a critical upcoming stretch with the Blue Jackets in a tight race for a playoff spot.
Fantilli’s “lessons” as a No. 1 NHL center have included head-to-head matchups the past five games against Anze Kopitar (Kings), Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes), Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs), Mathew Barzal (New York Islanders) and Mika Zibanejad (New York Rangers). He set an NHL career high against the Kings by skating 25:58 on 27 shifts.
“I think playing in these types of scenarios and the amount of minutes I’ve played recently has helped me a lot,” Fantilli said. “Hopefully, down the line I continue to do that no matter where in the lineup I’m playing.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sean Monahan out six-to-eight more weeks for Columbus Blue Jackets
