Natalie Spooner's injury leaves a void in PWHL Toronto's lineup that will need to be filled from within.
PWHL Toronto announced this morning that Natalie Spooner will be out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Spooner was seen crawling back to Toronto’s bench after an awkward hit resulted in her crashing to the boards during the third period of game three in Minnesota on Monday night.
With Toronto losing Spooner they will be without their top scorer for the remainder of their playoff run. She led the PWHL in points during the regular season and had amassed three more during the team’s three playoff games.
In a corresponding move Toronto has signed Jess Jones to a standard players contract as they put Spooner on the LTIR. Jones has yet to play a game in the PWHL and will most likely slot in on the fourth line.
Toronto who is up 2-1 in their five game series against Minnesota will need to look to their other players like Sarah Nurse, Maggie Connors and Emma Maltais to step in and fill the void. Though this will be a tough one to fill.
“We want players in this organization that want to make a difference on the ice,” said Troy Ryan before game one. “I think it’s important to talk about the mentality, we listed five or six scenarios that may happen and some of them aren’t always positive, so what is the mentality we want to have? If you discuss it you at least get a focal point to go back to when it happens.”