As it appeared the New Jersey Devils would be getting healthier, the team announced that one of their recently injured players will be out for a substantial amount of time. Jiri Tlusty has been out since leaving the January 8, 2016 game against Boston with an "upper body injury." The team announced today that Tlusty has underwent wrist surgery and will be out for three to four months. Here is the Tweet from the team's account:
#NJDevils forward Jiri Tlusty expected to miss 3-4 months after undergoing wrist surgery: https://t.co/t4Zrkbdqr9 pic.twitter.com/n3njYIpFMy
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) January 23, 2016
The link brings up a short article at the team's official website where Ray Shero announced that Tlusty had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right wrist. While surgery was successful, the time to recover will be significant. An expected three to four months means Tlusty should be out for just about the rest of the regular season. Even if he's ahead of schedule in recovery, we probably will not see him until the very tail end and that's being incredibly hopeful. Even the playoffs, assuming that actually happens, would require a lot to go correctly. Therefore, I think it's safe to think that Tlusty is done for 2015-16.
This is a shame because Tlusty just has had a rough time in New Jersey. Ray Shero signed him to a one year, $800,000 deal back in mid-September; a move that I thought was a shrewd one. If someone could fill in a top-six forward role or provide some additional depth, then, on paper, Tlusty would have been a good choice. Thirty games, thirty eight shots, two goals (one of which was scored by a Jet), and two assists later, Tlusty clearly didn't produce much. He wasn't so bad relative to the other Devils forwards in CF% per War on Ice, but he wasn't a significant play driver at all. Tlusty didn't take or draw many penalties. He was, well, just a guy for the Devils. And it's a shame because the opportunities were there for him to be a larger part of the team. Unfortunately, he didn't really fit in to be a forward of some significance. Now he has no chance of proving otherwise. As he signed a one-year deal, it's entirely possible that we won't see Tlusty in a Devils uniform again. So it goes.
All the same, we hope Tlusty's recovery is complete with no lingering issues. Please leave your comments about Tlusty and his injury in the comments. Thank you for reading.