Breaking News:Gabriel Vilardis injury finally becomes a serious thing of concern
Gabriel Vilardi’s lack of durability — which have been the biggest challenge thus far in his fledgling career — has continued to be an issue during his first season with the Winnipeg Jets.
Vilardi is currently dealing with a nagging upper-body injury the Jets’ organization has called “day to day” but has caused him to miss the last six games over the past two weeks. The 24 year old last played on Feb. 29 in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars; it was in that game he he either suffered or exacerbated the injury — he was stapled to the bench for the back half of it because he wasn’t feeling right.
Vilardi has still not begun skating, head coach Rick Bowness said Monday. He appears to not be recovering as fast as initially hoped as the team had said he was going to travel on the two-game road trip last weekend, but ended up leaving him in Winnipeg instead as they trekked to Seattle and Vancouver for back-to-back games.
The timeline for Vilardi’s return remains unclear as Bowness said “we’re not sure when he’s going to skate,” but that it “could be Wednesday, Thurs
Even if Vilardi does begin skating Wednesday, which is far from a certainty, he’ll likely miss at least two more games — on Wednesday against the Nashville Predators and Friday against the Anaheim Ducks — as he will still need to work his way back to game speed.
His season got off to an inauspicious start as on Oct. 17, he suffered an MCL sprain when being tripped from behind by former teammate Blake Lizotte and missed 16 games as a result. He also missed two games in January due to an undisclosed lower-body injury.