{"id":405568,"date":"2026-01-13T17:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/405568\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T17:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T17:17:12","slug":"team-canada-awaits-word-on-brayden-point-injury-could-be-forced-to-make-first-injury-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/405568\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Canada awaits word on Brayden Point injury, could be forced to make first injury replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> and Team Canada forward Brayden Point<\/a> suffered an ugly looking injury on Monday, just a month before the Olympic tournament is set to begin.<\/p>\n

Point was injured while scoring his 11th goal of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> as defenceman Cam York<\/a> fell onto his right leg. The 29-year-old immediately grabbed his knee and was helped off the ice, avoiding putting any weight on the leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all saw [the injury], so let\u2019s see,\u201d said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, who will also coach Canada at Milano Cortina 2026.<\/p>\n

Point was one of Canada\u2019s first six roster players announced in the summer but has struggled to reach his typical offensive output this season.<\/p>\n

The Calgary native has 11 goals and 30 points in 37 games after topping the 40-goal and 80-point marks in each of the past three campaigns. He had, however, been heating up of late, with eight points in his past five games and points in all but four games since Dec. 1 after a slow start to the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tough part for Pointer is his game had really turned the corner and it seemed he was scoring every night for us,\u201d Cooper acknowledged Monday.<\/p>\n

If Point is out long-term the question becomes who will replace him on Team Canada for next month\u2019s tournament. TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun previously reported that Connor Bedard<\/a>, Sam Bennett<\/a>, Wyatt Johnston<\/a>, Mark Scheifele<\/a>, Seth Jarvis<\/a> and Travis Konecny<\/a> have been told they are possible injury replacements.<\/p>\n

Of the group, Scheifele, Johnston and Bedard are having the best offensive seasons, with all three outproducing Point to date.<\/p>\n

Scheifele has picked up where he left off after posting a career-best 87 points last season with 22 goals and 52 points through 44 games. The 32-year-old centre is a four-time 30-goal scorer and posted 42 goals during the 2022-23 campaign.<\/p>\n

Johnston, 22, has 25 goals and 51 points in 46 games this season, on track to blow past the career-best 33 goals and 71 points he posted last season.<\/p>\n

Bedard was forced to miss nearly a month of action with an upper-body injury sustained in December but still sits 24th in the NHL with 19 goals and 46 points in 33 games. The 20-year-old is on track to set career highs after a finishing an underwhelming sophomore campaign with 23 goals and 67 points last season.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a sense of familiarity working in favour of Bennett, Jarvis and Konecny, as all three were a part of the Canada\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off team.<\/p>\n

Bennett, who was considered the most surprising player to miss Team Canada\u2019s initial roster, has 16 goals and 35 points in 45 games this season. The 29-year-old forward is coming off trophy-filled past two years, helping the Florida Panthers<\/a> to two straight Stanley Cups while winning the Conn Smythe Trophy last spring and helping Canada to their 4 Nations title last winter.<\/p>\n

Jarvis is also coming off an injury but returned to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> lineup last week. The 23-year-old has 12 goals and 33 points in 38 games this season after topping the 30-goal mark in each of the past two years.<\/p>\n

Konecny, who blamed his own play this season for not making the initial cut<\/a>, has 14 goals and 38 points in 43 games. The 28-year-old finished with 24 goals and 76 points in 82 games last year after topping 30 goals in the previous two years.<\/p>\n

If Canada is forced to replace Point, it\u2019s unclear the exact role management will be looking to fill. Point was listed as the team\u2019s second-line right winger, alongside Connor McDavid<\/a> and Macklin Celebrini<\/a>, on TSN\u2019s projected lines when the roster was named on Dec. 31.<\/p>\n

\"\"Team Canada – Projected Lines TSN’s projected Team Canada lines from when the roster was named on Dec. 31 <\/p>\n

The Olympic tournament is set to open on Feb. 11 with Finland facing Slovakia and host Italy taking on Sweden.<\/p>\n

Grouped with Czechia, Switzerland and France in Group A, Canada will play its on Feb. 12 against the Czechs. Every team will advance to the knockout rounds, with the three group winners and top second-place team advancing straight into the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning and Team Canada forward Brayden Point suffered an ugly looking injury on Monday, just a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,51130,33300,5,4,51131,33549],"class_list":{"0":"post-405568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-brayden-point-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8478010","10":"tag-connor-bedard-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8484144","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sam-bennett-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477935","14":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-14"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115888930283972335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}