New York Islanders Tanner Fritz Out 6-8 Weeks With Blood Clot

New York Islanders Tanner Fritz will be out for 6-8 weeks as he recovers from surgery to remove a blood clot. No call ups will be made.

The New York Islanders announced on Sunday that Tanner Fritz will be out for 6-8 weeks as he recovers from a surgery to remove a blood clot from his hand. A disappointing end to his season that was trending in the right direction.

After Valtteri Filppula was ruled out for four weeks with an upper-body injury, Tanner Fritz was called up by the New York Islanders from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers to take his place as the team’s third line center.

With 37 points in 57 games for the AHL Sound Tigers this season, Fritz good enough for a call-up and was obviously looking forward to stepping up to the NHL. Not to mention making his first playoff appearance. Unfortunately, that won’t happen.

No Call Ups

With Fritz out 6-8 weeks, the New York Islanders now have three players out for significant periods. Valtteri Filppula is out for four weeks with an “upper body injury” and Andrew Ladd is out five months with a torn ACL.

But even with all three out, the New York Islanders are, according to GM Lou Lamoriello, comfortable with the team they have. They won’t be calling anyone up from Bridgeport to replace Fritz (who, again, was replacing Filppula).

"Lamoriello said there were no immediate plans to recall a replacement from Bridgeport. “We’re very comfortable with the people we have here,” Lamoriello said. “We’ll just go accordingly.”"

Fritz only played four games before his surgery, but in those four games, he gave the Islanders a good shot of offense from the bottom six. His link-up play with linemates, his speed on the forecheck, and his ability to play the way Barry Trotz wanted a player in his position to play gave him a good shot at helping the Islanders for the remainder of the season and into the playoffs.

With Fritz out, that likely means Tom Kuhnhackl or Leo Komarov will be moved to center to play with Anthony Beauvillier. That doesn’t sound like a great line, but with the way Anthony Beauvillier has been playing recently, maybe he’ll coax something out of the other two we didn’t know was there.