Ryan Callahan played just 8:37 in last night’s game for the Tampa Bay Lightning after crashing into the boards hard, and today has been given a disappointing diagnosis. Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Callahan is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, and won’t even be evaluated again for at least three weeks.
Callahan was caught up with Coyotes’ defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the third period, and suffered an apparent shoulder or arm injury on the play. It’s a tough break for Callahan, who has seen his career derailed by injuries the past few seasons. Once the captain of the New York Rangers, Callahan was a perennial 20-goal scorer who reached a (since matched) career-high of 54 points in 2011-12.
Traded for Martin St. Louis, Callahan had a solid start with the Lightning but played just 18 games last year due to chronic hip issues. He’d worked hard to get back on the ice this year, but had just six points in 29 games playing fewer than 13 minutes a night. At $5.8MM, his cap hit is one of the worst in the league for a player of his production, and after this latest injury you have to start wondering about a potential long-term injury stint once again.