Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Oilers’ Gagner undergoing jaw surgery tomorrow

Ryan O'Byrne

Colorado Avalanche’s Ryan O’Byrne, left, falls behind Edmonton Oilers’ Sam Gagner during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton, Alberta, on Friday, Dec. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, John Ulan)

AP

On Tuesday, Edmonton announced that center Sam Gagner would be undergoing surgery for a broken jaw, suffered on Saturday after a high stick from Vancouver’s Zack Kassian.

“I think they’re going to put a plate in,” Oilers GM Craig MacTavish told Sportsnet’s Mark Spector. “Maybe a couple of plates.”

Gagner, 24, will be out indefinitely while recovering from the injury. Timetables are often vague when it comes to broken jaws -- returning to action can sometimes be contingent upon pain management -- but the Edmonton Journal speculates Gagner could be facing a 6-8 week recovery period.

If so, it would leave Edmonton without its top two centers for a large chunk of the season. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is already shelved with a shoulder injury and isn’t expected to be back until November.

Gagner is in the first year of a three-year, $14.4 million extension with the Oilers after finishing second on the team in points last season, with 38.