Ondrej Palat Out For Extended Period

Palat was injured on October 26th after taking a shot off his foot in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Lightning haven’t seen much progress from Palat so they are shutting him down for the next four weeks. Palat is still in a walking boot, but head coach John Cooper doesn’t believe that he will will need surgery.

So far this season, Palat has five assists to go along with four minutes in penalties in 9 games. His possession numbers were 52% Corsi and a relative Corsi of 0.7%.

Over his 7-year NHL career, Palat has only played for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He has 85 goals and 173 assists for 258 career points in 372 career games. He was originally drafted in the 7th round, 208 overall in the 2011 NHL draft.

What This Means For The Future

Palat also had a lower-body injury last year which limited him to only 56 games. His presence on the power-play unit will be missed as he had 24 points last season on the man advantage. So far into the season, the Bolts are 25.5% on the power-play which ranks 10th in the league. The Bolts second line has been striving in recent games  The Lightning have won four of their last six games without Palat in the line-up and are currently 1st in the Atlantic with a record of 11-3-1.

Once Palat returns to the line-up he will likely end up back with Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov. The three had played at least the last four games together before Palat’s injury. The Lightning have depth in their lineup which should hold them over until Palat returns. They will likely miss him on special teams, however.

The Lightning did get good news, though, as Victor Hedman who has been out since October 26th is back skating with the team.

Main Photo
Embed from Getty Images