Detroit Red Wings Valtteri Filppula out for 6-8 Weeks due to Sprained MCL -NHL Update
If the 2012-2013 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season was to start tomorrow, the Detroit Red Wings would be devastated as they would be playing without one of their leading forwards, Valtteri Filppula, who sprained his right knee during a Tuesday
night matchup.
Filppula was playing for the Finnish League’s Jokerit club and sprained a medial collateral ligament in his right knee and is reportedly out for six to eight weeks at the minimum in order to fully recover from the injury.
While the lockout has entered into its second month ever since the previous collective bargaining agreement came to an end on September 15, 2012, and no significant progress has been made in that regard between the league and Players’ Association as of yet.
Valtteri Filppula is a 95th overall draft of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings in the third round and has played all seven seasons of his career with his original draft team. Last season was the biggest of his career as he registered
66 points (23 goals, 43 assists) in 81 games played and a miraculous plus-minus rating of 18.
In a total of 442 games played up until now, Filppula has 234 points to back his career, with 91 of those being goals and 143 assists along with 152 points in the penalty box.
He is also one of nine Detroit Red Wings players who made the decision to continue playing abroad during the lockout and managed to secure a deal. He joined a number of others like Pavel Datsyuk, who is currently playing in Russia, along with Jonathan Ericsson
in Sweden and Henrik Zetterberg in Switzerland.
Seeing how Valtteri Filppula had a career changing season last time around and dynamically changed his position on the Detroit Red Wings club, one of the leading Western Conference teams would need to be prepared to be without a top level forward.
According to experts and hockey analysts, it will look like Filppula will only be getting better once he gets back to some hockey action on the ice. It will be interesting to see him playing when the puck drops, which will hopefully be soon.
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