It appears that Canucks prospect Anton Rodin is done for the season after reportedly severing half a tendon in his knee during practice with his SHL club Brynas today. Due to relying on google translate, details and severity are hard to piece together but it appears that Rodin was involved in a collision with a teammate at practice, which resulted in a skate blade cutting him near his knee.

We do know that the injury was severe enough that Rodin was sent to the hospital to have it examined and it is expected that he will have surgery later today.

Given this, it likely spells the end of Rodin’s season and will be a huge loss for Brynas. For Rodin, who was making some serious waves in the SHL this year, this puts a huge roadblock in his possible return to North America. Rodin is currently second in SHL and had caught the attention of many NHL scouts. Rodin was regularly playing over twenty minutes a night while putting up 1.12 PPG and averaging 2.75 shots on goal per game.

The Canucks do own his NHL rights until July 1st, 2018, after providing a qualifying offer before Rodin returned to the SHL in 2013 (thank you Mike Gillis). So if Rodin wanted to return to North America, the Canucks would’ve been in control of his destination. Prior to the injury, ideally, they would’ve chosen to sign him with hopes that his recent SHL success would translate to the NHL like Avalanche forward Carl Soderberg. If they felt he wasn’t worth the risk and if the Canucks were aware of a team with interest in Rodin, they could’ve flipped him for another asset.

However suffering this injury, may delay his return to the NHL as teams will likely be apprehensive about offering a contract to a player coming back from a major injury. 

If I was the Canucks, I would still take the risk of offering Rodin a contract with hopes that he can rebound from this injury.

Unfortunately, this all played out in the most Canucks way possible. The Canucks used a 2nd round pick to draft Rodin, who was oozing with talent but could never put it together in North America. He returns to Europe and seems to put it all together, and becomes found money for a team rebuilding on the fly. Then as quickly as he comes back on everyone’s radar, he’s gone again.