The NHL champion Colorado Avalanche lost two of their key players indefinitely due to similar injuries, the team announced. Defenseman Cale Makar and forward Darren Helm have lower-body injuries and have already missed the Avalanche’s last two games.
Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said he hopes Makar will be ready to play soon, but could not commit to an estimated date. The defender already dealt with other injuries this season, missing nine games between February 9 and March 1 with a concussion and sitting out another four games at the end of January with an upper-body problem.
Colorado has five games left in the regular season in the NHL, and the team occupies first place in the Central Division with 100 points, the same as the Dallas Stars.
Cale Makar is the season leader in minutes played with an average of 26:23 per game and has 17 goals and 49 assists in 60 games. Last year, he won the “Best Defenseman” and “Best Player in the Playoffs” awards.