Yet another star has dropped out of this month’s World Cup of Hockey with an injury. On Friday, it was announced that Calgary Flames’ forward Sean Monahan would be sitting for Team North America thanks to a back injury and would be replaced by Florida’s Vincent Trocheck.
The injury, according to the Flames, occurred during preseason training. However, don’t fear Flames fans, general manager Brad Treliving doesn’t believe it to be serious and expects Monahan to be ready for the start of training camp.
While the under-23 North American team will be losing Monahan – who has notched 159 points (80g-79a) in 237 regular season games – they do get a young forward who seems to be finding himself in the past couple of seasons.
In 146 regular season games, Trocheck has 83 points (37g-46a) with the majority of his production coming last season. He played 76 games for the Panthers a year ago scoring 25 goals and adding 28 assists for 53 points.
While he’s smaller than Monahan, his ability to add to the production for the young team seems inevitable. Trocheck will be joining fellow Panther Aaron Ekblad as they hope to show the international hockey world that experience isn’t everything.
The tournament begins September 17 and will run right through to October 1.