The Edmonton Oilers announced that power forward David Perron won’t return to Wednesday’s preseason game because of an injury to his ribs.
Perron, 26, actually returned to the ice after being shaken up by an open-ice hit by Arizona Coyotes defenseman Matt Smaby, but eventually he either couldn’t deal with the discomfort and/or the team thought it might be wise to proceed with caution.
This apparently isn’t the only issue he’s dealt with during the preseason:
Injuries dogged Perron for a significant chunk of his time with the St. Louis Blues, as he was limited to 10 games in 2010-11 and 57 games in 2011-12 because of significant concussion problems.
He played every regular season game of the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season with St. Louis and appeared in 78 of 82 games last season with Edmonton, setting career-highs with 28 goals and 57 points while providing a notable physical presence (116 hits, ranking first among forwards and third overall in Edmonton).
It’s unclear at this moment how serious this issue might be, but Perron’s clearly had a tough go of things lately.
Update: The Oilers don’t sound overly concerned:
"He got the wind knocked out of him and his ribs are a little sore." - Coach Eakins not overly concerned with @DP_57's status post-game
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 2, 2014