Little out for season with back injury

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This article was published 25/02/2016 (3565 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DALLAS — Winnipeg Jets forward Bryan Little is out for the season with a fractured vertebrae.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice told reporters here following his club’s morning skate that tests last night found that Little “sustained a compression fracture of his T-6 vertebrae.

“That’s as technical as I can get for you. It’s mid to lower back, so it was a significant amount of force that caused the compression fracture. And he will be out for the remainder of the regular season.

“I think it’s an eight-week injury. But coming off that injury, we would expect because it’s stable and — again I’m not a doctor — but it’s the big bone of your spine. Once he heals through that process, he should be ready to go. The muscles will have calmed down and all the things around it.

“So he will be ready to be a player and to train.”

Little sustained the injury last Thursday in Tampa when he was hit high by the Lightning’s Anton Stralman. There was no penalty called on the play or supplemental discipline from the NHL, but the Jets — and Maurice in particular — felt the hit was illegal.

With Little out, the Jets recalled Matt Halischuk from the Manitoba Moose. Maurice said Halischuk will arrive in Dallas this afternoon. The Jets also announced they have placed Mark Stuart on injured reserve, retroactive to Feb. 13.

The Jets play the Dallas Stars Thursday evening and then in Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon.

The Little news overshadowed the fact team captain Andrew Ladd was out on the ice for the Jets morning skate at American Airlines Center, even as trade rumours continue to swirl.

Ladd is expected to play tonight on a line with Mathieu Perreault and Drew Stafford.

The decision to have Ladd continue to play even as the Jets shop him around the league is not without risks — a serious injury to Ladd now would take him off the trading block and leave the Jets with no compensation should he leave at the end of the season as an unrestricted free agent.

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Maurice says he’s been asked in the past as a head coach to keep a player off the ice who was potentially on the move, but he said he’s received no request from GM Kevin Cheveldayoff to keep Ladd out of the lineup.

Beat writers for the Florida Panthers and New York Islanders both reported Thursday morning that the Jets asking price for Ladd is a first rounder and top prospect.

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek