Gabriel Vilardi suffered an injury in the third period during the Winnipeg Jets game vs. Dallas on Thursday, February 29th. He took a skate during a commercial break but found himself held out of action as there was something more at play.
Vilardi didn’t skate on Friday, March 1 in Texas. Considered a game-time decision for the game against Carolina, there was hope that Vilardi would be good to go against Carolina. No morning skate for the 11:30 am CST start time, Vilardi was not in the lineup when it came time to play.
It was later revealed that Vilardi had been sent back to Winnipeg to be further evaluated. No indication at the time of writing what the extent of the injury is other than it being an upper-body injury.
Vilardi was acquired by Winnipeg in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade that saw Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, and Rasmus Kupari come from Los Angeles to Winnipeg. Since joining the Jets, Vilardi has scored 16 goals and tallied 14 assists for 30 points in 38 games.
The Jets hold their breath with the Vilardi injury news and hope for the best-case scenario. Vilardi missed 18 games with an MCL sprain after a messy play with former teammate Blake Lizotte back in October.
