Stars D Heiskanen week-to-week; ruled out of 4 Nations
Dallas Stars standout defenceman Miro Heiskanen has been labelled week-to-week with a lower-body injury and will miss next month's 4 Nations Face-Off.
TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston reports a replacement will be named before the tournament.
Stars head coach Peter DeBoer said Heiskanen underwent an MRI on Wednesday and will see a specialist on Thursday.
Heiskanen was injured in the third period of the Dallas Stars' 4-3 overtime victory over Vegas on Tuesday night after a collision with Golden Knights captain Mark Stone.
Stone fell toward Heiskanen's left knee and thigh after getting tripped. Stone was assessed a 2-minute tripping penalty and DeBoer came to the defence of his former player.
“I coached Mark Stone,” DeBoer said. “He’s not a dirty player. He’s not trying to hurt anybody. I know that. That doesn’t mean they can’t call a 5(-minute major) or at least look at it. That was my argument.”
Stone said he wasn’t trying to take out Heiskanen.
“I go to reach to try and angle him out and, not sure who it was, tripped me kind of as I was falling forward,” Stone said. “I really hope he’s all right. But I was just trying to make a play and got tripped into him.”
There was a brief clash between the teams while Heiskanen was sprawled on the ice.
“He's their best defenceman,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He goes down and never looks good. He's a great player. A ton of respect for the way he plays. But the way we saw it, Stoney got tripped and lost his balance. We're not out there trying to take out good players in the league.”