The Red Wings lost to the Wild Thursday night, and lost a key player in the process.
Robby Fabbri suffered a major knee injury that the team believes is a torn ACL, Jeff Blashill told reporters Friday. Fabbri, who's getting a second opinion, will be out for at least the rest of the season.
It's a tough blow for the Red Wings, and a tough blow for Fabbri. The 26-year-old winger who signed a three-year, $12 million extension with Detroit in December was in the midst of a career year with 17 goals in 56 games, on pace to blow past his career high of 18. He was also playing a career-high 17:20 per game as a fixture on the team's second line and first power play unit.
Now the team will be without him for a while.
Fabbri has dealt with knee injuries in the past, including a torn ACL that cost him all of the 2017-18 season. On the one hand, it's encouraging that he's come back from such a setback before. On the other, it's concerning that it feels like a trend. If there's a silver lining, the first ACL tear was to his left knee, while this injury is to his right.
"I feel absolutely terrible for him," Blashill said. "Not only has he had to grind through multiple ACL injuries in the past, he's also had to grind through and done an unreal job of getting himself back to a spot where he played without any fear of injury and played with that relentless nature that he has to play with to be successful."
The Wings can't seem to catch a break. Just when they got one top-six forward back from injury in Jakub Vrana, who missed the first four months of the season due to shoulder surgery, they've lost another for the foreseeable future.