Sometimes it seems like we've been hearing about the eventual arrival of St. Louis Blues defenseman Erik Johnson as an elite level talent for just about forever. If you watch the game closely, it was hard to miss the coverage as Johnson made his way up the American development ladder first as a cornerstone of Team USA in several World Junior tournaments, through a stop at the University of Minnesota and his debut last season with the St. Louis Blues.Well, it looks like Johnson's appointment with hockey stardom is going to get delayed, and significantly, thanks to the freak injury he suffered last week while getting out of a golf cart at a team-sponsored tournament:
Blues defenseman Erik Johnson has a torn ACL in his right knee and will undergo surgery in a couple of weeks, a source has told the Post-Dispatch.When you're talking about bad news, it can't get much worse than this for St. Louis. At 6'4" and better than 220 pounds, Johnson was expected to play top pair minutes and run the team's power play. Needless to say, that's not an all-inclusive package that's readily available, and for a team like the Blues that's already committed to a youth movement, it's the kind of injury that's devastating both on the ice and at the box office.
Johnson, 20, is expected to be sidelined six to nine months after injuring his knee in a golf-cart incident last week at the Lake of the Ozarks.
m Paddock, C (UFA, AHL), Matt Foy, R (UFA, Min), Chris Mason, G (trade, Nsh)
Are you a fan of a crappy hockey team? Were they eliminated from post-season contention in January? Did injuries decimate your roster? Did all those moves last summer not pay off at all?
Finishing out a season where there wasn't a whole lot to cheer about, the St. Louis Blues had an opportunity to forget about the impending end of their NHL season when they were able to celebrate the 500th goal of Keith Tkachuk's career.
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