The St.Louis Blues announced that center Tyler Bozak has been placed on injured reserve with a concussion. There is no timeline for his return, but he will not travel with the team for their upcoming road trip. This is the first concussion in his 10-year career.
NHL → IR
Tyler Bozak (C) | St. Louis Blues#STLBlueshttps://t.co/JYRMLdrhUV— CapFriendly Transactions (@CF_Transactions) January 11, 2019
Tyler Bozak Out With Concussion
It is likely Bozak suffered the injury on January 5th vs New York Islanders. He played less than 12 minutes in the game. He has not played since.
So far this season, Bozak has scored six goals and 12 assists for 18 points to go along with 10 minutes in penalties. His possession numbers were 49.4 percent Corsi and a relative Corsi of -0.7 percent.
Over his 10-year NHL career, Bozak has played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and St.Louis Blues. He has 142 goals and 241 assists for 383 career points in 633 career games. He signed a three year, $15 million deal in July with the Blues.
What This Means For The Future
This is another loss for a Blues team who is already having a down year. Bozak was the Blues second line center before getting hurt. Bozak also provides a lot of veteran experience on a team who is currently rebuilding. Brayden Schenn will continue to center the Blues second line in the meantime.
The Blues are 2-1 so far without Bozak in the lineup. This record may look good on paper but the effect of losing a solid guy faceoff guy will hurt the team long term. In the three games when Schenn has centered the second line, he has failed to win more than 43% of his draws.
With the Blues possibly being sellers at the deadline, it’s very unlikely Bozak gets dealt as he has a no-trade clause.
Along with Bozak, winger Robert Thomas was also placed on IR today after suffering an upper-body injury in last night’s game vs Montreal Canadiens.
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