Sharks' Logan Couture out 4-6 weeks after fracturing fibula in practice
San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture will miss the next 4-6 weeks after fracturing his fibula in practice Thursday.
By
Chris Peters
•
1 min read
The San Jose Sharks will be without one of their top forwards for an extended period. Logan Couture is expected to miss four to six weeks after suffering an injury during a drill in practice Thursday.
"Logan was injured in practice on Thursday in New Jersey and suffered a fractured right fibula at the ankle," general manager Doug Wilson said in a statement. "He will be returning to San Jose to undergo surgery under the direction of Kaiser Permanente's medical team. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks."
Couture had been centering the Sharks' second line with Patrick Marleau and Joel Ward on the wings. He has just one assist, but Marleau and Ward clearly were benefiting from the solid play of their 26-year-old center.
The injury puts a real damper on what has otherwise been an outstanding start to the season for the Sharks. They're 3-0-0 and outscoring opponents 12-1, which is about as well as you can start a season. To lose a valuable top-six forward like that is a tough blow.
This may force the Sharks to juggle the lines a bit, which is not something you want to do when the team is firing on all cylinders early. Tomas Hertl seems like the natural choice to jump into the No. 2 center slot, but he has been playing extremely well, primarily with Matt Nieto and Tommy Wingels.
The club can also dip into its forward depth and plug veteran Ben Smith into the lineup. He's obviously no Couture, but his versatility might allow the Sharks to not throw everything in a blender right away here.
New head coach Peter DeBoer has his team rolling, but he'll face a pretty difficult challenge just over a week into the season in figuring out how to restructure things in Couture's lengthy absence.
This is obviously disappointing for Couture, too, as he was getting acclimated on a new line and finding early success. The veteran forward is coming off of a career year in which he posted 40 assists and 67 points. In 382 NHL games, all with the Sharks, Couture has 289 career points.
