- Oskar Back has a broken finger and will miss four to six weeks, Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said Friday
- Dallas placed the forward on injured reserve, retroactive to Oct. 14
- Read below for video of his last shift in Colorado and how the Stars cover the hole
Oskar Back will miss the next four to six weeks with a broken finger.
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan delivered the update Friday. Here’s the news from NHL.com’s Robert Tiffin:
The forward had been listed as upper-body since he left Wednesday’s 3-2 shootout win at Colorado. The Stars made the roster move official Friday, backdating the injured reserve stint to Wednesday:
Gulutzan was asked about the timeline and pointed to a pattern.
“Hopefully it’s a little sooner than that, but I think that’s twice now with hands (injuries) with Oskar,” Gulutzan said.
Back played just five shifts and 3:04 against the Avalanche. Tiffin noted that his last shift came with about six minutes left in the first period, and that Back seemed to check his glove after Nazem Kadri squeezed by him on the boards. Watch the clip:
Nothing in that sequence looked major, which is how a broken finger sneaks up on a team. Dallas played the rest of the night with 11 forwards.
He has one assist in seven games this season, a helper in the 5-0 win over San Jose on Oct. 5. Back carries an $825,000 cap hit and has been a bottom-six penalty killer, averaging more than two minutes of shorthanded ice time per game.
The Stars can’t afford many more holes up front. They are 3-3-1 and already lost Matt Duchene for three months after surgery. Wyatt Johnston missed two games with an illness and remains in Dallas, and Gulutzan said the Stars could fly him in for Saturday’s game but “we’re not there yet.”
Dallas did add help Friday by signing David Perron to a one-year deal, and he looks like the obvious candidate to take a spot in the lineup against Chicago on Saturday night.
