The Los Angeles Kings formally put injured forward Marian Gaborik on injured reserve today. Gaborik broke his right foot during the World Cup of Hockey after taking a shot from teammate Mats Zuccarello.
Initial reports say that Gaborik will miss at least eight weeks, putting his return to sometime in late November. Despite the loss, however, the Kings are still poised to be competitive in the Pacific. Gaborik did score 12G and 10A in 54 games, but the offense was carried by Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, and Tyler Toffoli. Gaborik ended up averaging less than 15 minutes a night during the regular season.
Gaborik is quickly becoming an injury concern for the Kings, deservedly or not. He finished the regular season last year in the press box recovering from a knee sprain that sidelined him for 28 games. He made a quick appearance in the playoffs before the Kings bowed out in the first round. More alarming, however, is that Gaborik has only played a full 82 games once in his 15 year career. The Kings will have to learn to live with Gaborik’s injury history as he still has five year remaining on his contract worth $4.875MM a year.
It was dumb to give a guy with his injury history a contract of that length. He has been an injury concern for most of his career.