Jets center Sean Monahan is not in the lineup for Sunday’s game against the Coyotes due to illness, the team’s communications department said.
This is Monahan’s first absence since Winnipeg acquired him from the Canadiens for a 2024 first-round pick and a 2027 conditional third-round pick on Feb. 2. The 29-year-old is on a tear with five goals in his last four games, his only points in a Jets uniform.
He’s averaging 17:45 per game since the trade while holding down the second-line center spot, winning 57.6% of his draws to boost his already career-high 55.4% win rate on the season. Veteran utility man Vladislav Namestnikov is seeing a promotion tonight, centering a second line of Nikolaj Ehlers and Alex Iafallo in Monahan’s absence.
Monahan, the 2013 sixth-overall pick, has 40 points in 57 games on the season, his highest per-game clip since he scored 34 goals and notched 82 points in 78 games with the Flames en route to a regular-season conference championship in 2018-19. He’s seeing usage on Winnipeg’s top power-play unit with Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi, and his even-strength possession numbers have been strong in a small sample with a 54.3 CF%
Other injury updates as the weekend draws to a close:
- Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield is absent from tonight’s ongoing contest against the Sabres with an upper-body injury, according to the NHL’s roster report. Chatfield remains listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury and has now missed his fourth straight contest. The 27-year-old Michigan native last suited up on Feb. 17 against the Golden Knights, and Carolina is 2-1-0 in his absence. The rock-steady bottom-pairing defender has five goals and 14 points in 49 games this season while averaging a career-high 14:52 per game. In line with the rest of the team, the undrafted free agent has a strong 59.3% Corsi share at even strength, tracking similarly to his previous two seasons in Raleigh. Chatfield is in the back half of a two-year, $1.525MM extension and will be a UFA this summer.
- Blackhawks defenseman Louis Crevier is returning from a facial injury against the Red Wings tonight, according to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The 22-year-old rookie missed Chicago’s last two games after taking a puck to the mouth against Carolina on Monday. The 6-foot-8, 228-pound youngster was a seventh-round pick in the 2020 draft and has three assists through 20 games this year, his first NHL stint. He’s struggled to keep pace with the NHL, though, posting below-average possession numbers on an already defensively-challenged Blackhawks team with a 39.3 CF% at even strength and a -13 rating while averaging 15:47 per game.