Preseason Hockey Continues To Be A Total Bloodbath This Year

The NHL preseason is winding down and for a lot of GMs, coaches, and fans the end couldn’t come soon enough since it seems like this year’s slate of preseason games has been a bloodbath with some key players exiting games or even being ruled out for months thanks to injuries sustained in games that are essentially meaningless.

We’ve already seen Drew Doughty go down with a broken ankle, William Nylander leave a game after an improvised Nick Robertson tush-push went sideways, and Patrik Laine ruled out for two to three months with a sprained knee, and on Tuesday the hits just kept coming with more big names dropping like flies.

On Tuesday night, it was San Jose Sharks and Ottawa Senators fans’ turn to hold their breaths as key players exited games early with injury.

For the Sharks, it was first-overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini who left their game against Utah early with a lower-body injury after losing his footing in front of the net and going hard into the boards.

That’s the last thing you want to see with a high-end rookie like Celebrini who should bring a lot of excitement to the league this season.

There hasn’t been an update on Celebrini’s condition yet, but hopefully, it’s nothing too serious.

Now, for Senators fans, they had to watch as pretty much the entire top of their lineup got beat to a pulp, most notably forward Tim Stutzle, who took this questionable-at-best hit from Habs big man Arber Xhekaj which earned him a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

Stutzle, Thomas Chabot, and Sens captain Brady Tkachuk all left the game with injuries and were scheduled to be looked at again Wednesday.

As you saw in that tweet from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Rangers star Artemi Panarin also left their preseason game on Tuesday with an injury as well.

Players are dropping left and right/ What is happening?

SAN JOSE, CA – OCTOBER 01: San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini (71) falls after unsuccessful shot on goal during a preseason NHL game between the Utah Hockey Club and the San Jose Sharks on October 1, 2024 at SAP Center at San Jose in San Jose, CA. (Photo by Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

What The Hell Is Going On With The NHL Preseason?!

For some reason, this preseason has been a real problem on the injury front, which has led to calls to reduce the number of preseason games. 

Each team plays six preseason games and has for years. However, a lot of players don’t play in all six, so I don’t think the number of games on the schedule is too high.

It’s potentially just a coincidence that we’ve seen a big surge of notable injuries in the preseason. Hockey is hockey, and a lot of these injuries were freak things that could have happened in a regular season game just as easily.

There are other factors at play. Sometimes you’ve got bubble players playing with a bit more of an edge to catch some attention and make the NHL club, and that may come with opponents catching some occasional collateral damage.

The other thing is that while we have some confirmed serious injuries to the likes of Doughty, Laine, and Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren, other players may have simply left the game with an injury they would have otherwise played through. It stands to reason that teams are quicker to give star players the hook in preseason games, which could make it seem like even more of a bloodbath than it has been this preseason.

Whatever the reason, expect the preseason to be a talking point moving forward especially if there are similar issues next season considering the current CBA expires in September 2026.