Gustav Olofsson underwent surgery on his injured shoulder and is expected to miss six months. The Montreal Canadiens initially acquired Olofsson from the Minnesota Wild in return for rookie William Bitten prior to the start of the American Hockey League season.
Olofsson initially injured his shoulder after a hit from Patrik Laine during the Wild’s first preseason game on September 19th. He recovered from that injury to play two games with the Rocket, recording one assist and placing himself in the running for first call-up with the Canadiens if they needed reinforcements on the blueline, especially given his 56 games of previous NHL experience.
Olofsson re-injured his shoulder in a game against the Springfield Thunderbirds on October 19th. Initially, it looked like he left the game after blocking a shot with his knee, but it turned out that he re-injured his shoulder earlier in the same play. He has been plagued with injuries of this nature during his career, having previously sustained a season-ending shoulder injury during AHL Iowa’s first game of the 2014-15 season as well as a season-ending injury to his other shoulder in 2015-16.
Gustav Olofsson went to the locker room after blocking this shot late in the first period. pic.twitter.com/07MtZxS2el
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla) October 20, 2018
On Thursday the Laval Rocket announced that they signed defenceman Ryan Sproul to a Professional Tryout, leading to speculation of a long-term injury for Olofsson.
Olofsson becomes an RFA at the end of the season.
