The Vancouver Canucks have placed veteran defenceman Derek Forbort on injured reserve with an undisclosed ailment. The move is retroactive to October 11th. As such, the 33-year-old is not eligible to play again until October 18th, which means Forbort will miss at least the first two games of the team’s road trip in Dallas and Chicago.

Forbort played in the team’s first two games of the season before being held out of Monday’s 5-2 loss to St. Louis. At the time, the club explained the absence as load management. However, Forbort has clearly been nursing some sort of injury. He saw only one shift in the third period of an October 1st preseason game in Calgary. He then missed the final game on the exhibition schedule as well as a series of practices ahead of opening night.

It’s the second straight season Forbort has been forced to the sidelines in the early going. Last year, he took a brief personal leave after the passing of his father three games into the season. A few weeks later, he suffered a lower-body injury in a team practice in San Jose. In all, Forbort appeared in just four games prior to mid-December.

With Forbort on IR, it opens a spot on the roster for P-O Joseph, who has been on IR since the start of the season. However, both Joseph and Teddy Blueger practiced on Tuesday and are with the team as they head for Dallas. Joseph would need to be activated before he can play. Blueger, however, has been on the season-opening roster and can play whenever he gets clearance from the team medical staff. Both players skated in non-contact jerseys on Tuesday.

With Forbort out and Joseph still on IR for the time being, the Canucks have just six healthy defencemen on the roster. Victor Mancini drew into the lineup and saw his first game action of the season on Monday.

If Joseph is not quite ready to play, Kirill Kudryavtsev or Tom Willander could be summoned by the Canucks to fill their empty roster spot.