National Hockey League: Vancouver Canucks’ Sami Salo injured
To say that Sami Salo is injury prone would be an understatement. He attracts injuries like a lightning rod attracts lightning. Last time Salo was playing, he was fighting against a shoulder injury, and then came the off-season which was no more merciful for the defenseman.
Reports about the injuries first came through the Finnish media and since then have been confirmed by the Vancouver Canucks. Sami Salo has injured his Achilles tendon that is expected to keep him on the bench for at least a few months or possibly leave him out of the game for the entire season. Achilles tendon injuries generally necessitate extensive rehabilitation periods and almost always require surgery. Salo’s Canucks teammate, Kevin Bieksa, suffered a similar tendon tear 3 years ago and was forced to sit out 47 games.
The circumstances surrounding the injury haven’t been made clear yet due to conflicting reports. It was reported that the injury was incurred during training or playing floor hockey or something else that goes by the name of ‘Floorball’ that, we are told, is popular in Europe. As of yet it’s not known which version of events is accurate. All that is known for sure is that he is indeed injured and he would be missing a significant part of the next season. No other details were given out by the Canucks.
Salo has suffered more than his share of injuries. A rough estimate would suggest that he has missed as many as 200 games due to an array of injuries of varying severities in his 11-season NHL career. He has injured every part of his body that one would expect could get injured while playing professional hockey and that too as a defenseman. He has suffered injuries to his ankle, shoulder, foot, knee, ribs and a broken nose.
In fact, being injured is about as common for Salo as being fit. Why are you even reading this story then?
For one thing, the injury comes as at a very inconvenient time for the Canucks and they couldn’t be too happy about losing Salo to an offseason injury in the final year of his contract with them. The Canucks went over their Salary Cap by more than a million dollars when Jannik Hansen was awarded a beefed up one-way contract through salary arbitration from which the Canucks have no way of backing out. They are bound to take another cap hit when Mason Raymond’s arbitration hearing concludes. They have a serious cap problem on their hands.
The most likely solution for the Canucks hinged on a successful trade and the most likely candidate was defenseman Kevin Bieksa. When the Canucks did have Salo in good form, they had a pretty deep defensive line-up and were spending nearly $26 million on it. Bieksa’s $3.75 worth trade, if done right, could compensate for Jannik and Mason. But now that Salo appears to be out of the running, what other options do the Canucks still have?
They would want to keep Bieksa or would be left lacking in their defence for the coming season. Salo is one of the most important defensemen with the Canucks and without him, they wouldn’t be quite as confident about trading a defenseman Bieksa. Bieksa himself is no stranger to injuries and the number of games he has missed is right up there with Salo. The two together make a strong defensive line-up, but with just one of them the Canucks run the very real risk of being severely lacking in their defence.
Salo is a true veteran of the NHL. He was drafted 239th by the Ottawa Senators in 1996 and was traded to the Canucks in the 2002-2003 season. He has been with the Canucks ever since. Salo has played 665 NHL games, scoring 81 goals and making 192 assists for a total of 273 points. The 6’3 204 lb Finn is a force to be reckoned with in the rink, and his absence would become immediately apparent.
Tags: