Hershey with Big Hole to Fill After Loss of Jakub Vrana
Yesterday afternoon, we learned of the loss of Jakub Vrana for the next three to four months for the Hershey Bears after a wrist injury that was sustained during practice last week.
Hershey was working on a defensive zone drill when Vrana got caught in a battle in the corner. “His stick caught in the boards and consequently his wrist went into the boards funny,” head coach Troy Mann said. “We thought he was going to be okay, but then it swelled up overnight.”
The 19-year-old went for x-rays that came back negative, but after an MRI, tendon damage was seen and he underwent subsequent surgery. “He’s going to be 12 weeks. If you look at the math, probably end of January – early February [return]. That’s not to say he may progress quicker than they’re anticipating and could be back sooner.”
Vrana will return home for a week to visit with family before returning back to Hershey for rehab. “He can’t really do anything for 14 days because he’s in a cast. For him it’s just a step-by-step thing; you can’t look too far ahead. He’s just got to go home, visit his family for a few days and enjoy them, which is something you can’t do normally during the hockey season. Once he gets clearance to get on the ice we’ll start making sure his legs are in shape.”
The loss of the forward leaves a large question mark for the Bears on their front line. “I think when you look at our team; we all know Chris Bourque is our biggest game breaker. Next to Bourquey, you got to look at a guy like Vrana. He’s got that ability to tie a game up with 12 seconds left in those kind of critical times in the game. He’s going to certainly be missed.
“Hopefully it doesn’t deter his development too much. He’s going to miss the World Juniors now and obviously it’s a big offensive hole for us. We’ll just have to have other guys step up here and try and get though it over the next three months.”
Hershey is back in action on Friday as they take on Lehigh Valley in a rematch of Sunday night’s Whiteboard Game.