Hurricanes' Pesce, Rask to miss remainder of season with injuries

The Carolina Hurricanes announced Wednesday that defenseman Brett Pesce and center Victor Rask would miss the remainder of the season, both with shoulder injuries.

Canes coach Bill Peters said Thursday both could undergo surgery, saying, "Both guys have been playing with it for quite a while."

Rask left Tuesday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers after making a play against Oilers center Connor McDavid but later returned. He was not at practice Wednesday at PNC Arena.

Pesce, who has played with defenseman Jaccob Slavin much of the season on the Canes' best defensive pairing, was at Wednesday’s practice.

Defenseman Roland McKeown was recalled Wednesday on emergency from the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey league. McKeown, 22, has two assists in three games with the Hurricanes this season.

Defenseman Noah Hanifin, the Canes' representative in the 2018 NHL All-Star Game, is sidelined indefinitely with a concussion. Peters said Hanifin was able to get in an off-ice workout Wednesday.

The Hurricanes have generally been injury-free much of the season, with 71 man-games lost. Forward Lee Stempniak missed 36 games with upper-body injuries.

Peters said the plan was to use Sebastian Aho at center in Thursday's game against Arizona with Teuvo Teravainen and Valentin Zykov on the wings. Teravainen was shaken up late in the Edmonton game and missed Wednesday's practice.

Peters said with Pesce and Hanifin out, Slavin would play with Justin Faulk, Haydn Fleury would be paired with Trevor van Riemsdyk and Klas Dahlbeck with McKeown.

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Hurricanes' Pesce, Rask to miss remainder of season with injuries."