The New Jersey Devils will be without Evgenii Dadonov on Saturday night as they play the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena.
"The X-rays were negative, but he woke up and wasn't feeling much better," head coach Sheldon Keefe told NJD.TV. "They had further imaging, which did show there was a fracture in there. The extent of it, they need to look a little bit closer. He will be out for the rest of this road trip, and we will get him back home and get a better sense of what the timeline will be."
Dadonov opened the season on New Jersey's top line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. He played 9:32, including 1:07 on the power play. In his Devils' debut, he has two shots on goal and two blocked shots.
Keefe will start Saturday's game with Ondrej Palat playing with Hughes and Bratt. The move allows Arseni Gritsyuk to move to the third line and play with Cody Glass and Connor Brown. Recently acquired Zack MacEwen will make his Devils debut.
Below is New Jersey's projected lineup against Tampa:
Ondrej Palat - Jack Hughes - Jesper Bratt
Timo Meier - Nico Hischier - Dawson Mercer
Arseny Gritsyuk - Cody Glass - Connor Brown
Paul Cotter - Luke Glendening - Zack MacEwen
Luke Hughes - Brett Pesce
Jonas Siegenthaler - Dougie Hamilton
Brenden Dillon - Simon Nemec
Jacob Markstrom
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