Injury Notes: Moore, Raanta, Hjalmarsson, Okposo

Bruins defenseman John Moore last suited up on February 26th and it appears that will be the last game he plays for a while.  Head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed to reporters, including Matt Porter of the Boston Globe (Twitter link), that Moore recently underwent surgery.  The nature of the injury nor the timeline for a return were specified.  It’s the latest in what has been a series of frustrations since he inked a five-year, $13.75MM contract back in the 2018 offseason.  Since then, Moore has held a limited role in the lineup, spending time as a healthy scratch.

With how much time he has missed and now the news that he has had surgery, the Bruins are eligible to transfer Moore to LTIR.  It’s a move that they don’t need to make for now as they’ve had ample cap space to recall a short-term replacement but if it happened to be a season-ending injury, it would give GM Don Sweeney a bit more flexibility heading into next month’s trade deadline.  For now though, Moore is one of four Boston blueliners currently on IR, joining Brandon Carlo, Jeremy Lauzon, and Kevan Miller.

Other injury news from around the league:

• Coyotes goaltender Antti Raanta is injured once again, reports Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has had a hard time staying in the lineup in recent years, a trend that has continued this season.  A pending UFA, Raanta has been speculated as a possible trade chip at the trade deadline but missing any time due to injury doesn’t help his value.  Ivan Prosvetov is up from the taxi squad to serve as Adin Hill’s backup for tonight’s game.
• Also from Morgan’s note, defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson is out due to an upper-body issue. The injury was sustained in Monday’s loss to Colorado and there is no word on how long he will miss. The team announced (via Twitter) that both Raanta and Hjalmarsson were placed on injured reserve.
• Sabres winger Kyle Okposo isn’t expected to join the team for the remainder of their current road trip, relays John Vogl of The Athletic (Twitter link). The veteran is dealing with an upper-body injury and interim head coach Don Granato indicated that the hope is that Okposo will be able to return next week. It has been another tough year for the 32-year-old who has scored just once in 24 games this season.