The hits keep coming and the injuries keep piling up for the NHL.
The latest victim is New York Rangers top line center Derek Stepan, who the team announced has suffered a fractured left fibula and will be out an indefinite period of time.
#NYR Injury Update: @DerekStepan21 suffered a fractured fibula and is meeting with doctor..no estimate yet on how long he will be out
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) September 24, 2014
According to a report from the New York Post, Stepan "crumpled to the ice during a sprint and clutched his left leg as he slid through the neutral zone" as the team went through on-ice conditioning testing.
Stepan initially took a Dan Girardi shot off the same foot during an informal skate on September 9 and had since been held off the ice.
He was helped to the locker room by teammates Mats Zuccarello and Martin St. Louis.
The 24-year-old Stepan missed all of last year's preseason due to a contract dispute and will most likely miss some or all of this year's. He also hasn't missed any of the 294 regular season games in his four-year career, but that also seems likely to change.
He did miss Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Montreal Canadiens last season with a broken jaw.
Meanwhile, the Rangers now seem dangerously thin at a position that already had questionable depth prior to Stepan's injury. Derick Brassard would most likely assume Stepan's role on the top line, but after that things get pretty muddied.
There are a number of players including J.T. Miller, Matt Lombardi and Dominic Moore who could assume a variety of positions down the center of New York's lineup, but all come with question marks.
For New York, Stepan's injury is a significant one and will leave the Rangers and their fans hurting for, at the very least, the early portion of this season.
