Providence begins the postseason this weekend with a Hockey East quarterfinal playoff series against Merrimack this weekend. But they'll likely have to progress through the Hockey East tournament, and potentially their defense of last year's national title without top defenseman Jake Walman.
Walman has been banged up with an undisclosed injury for the past few weeks since suffering an injury in Providence's 3-2 OT win over Notre Dame on February 19th.
Today, at his weekly press conference, Providence head coach Nate Leaman confirmed that Walman is still out, and could be for some time.
Providence sophomore defenseman and St. Louis Blues prospect Jake Walman is out indefinitely, per Nate Leaman.
— Jeff Cox (@JeffCoxSports) March 8, 2016
'Indefinitely' is vague, perhaps intentionally so, but usually, it's not a good sign to have no fixed timetable for return.
Walman is second in the nation in points per game by a defenseman, just fractions of a point behind St. Cloud State's Ethan Prow.
Providence is 20-3-4 with Walman in the line-up this season, and 5-2-0 without him, though two of those wins sans Walman came two weeks against a hapless UMass team, which skews that number a bit. There's little doubt that the Friars would be much more dangerous in the NCAA Tournament if Walman was in the line-up.