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North Dakota sophomore forward Brock Boeser has not played since November 19th, due to an upper body injury. Today, Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald reports that Boeser will have surgery to repair a wrist injury:
Brock Boeser is having surgery on his wrist and will not play in the World Juniors.
— Brad E. Schlossman (@SchlossmanGF) December 14, 2016
The good news for North Dakota is that the surgery is not expected to keep him out long term. He is expected to be back some time in January to help the Fighting Hawks in the second half of the NCHC conference season.
But it’s a big blow to the United States World Juniors team, which was expecting Boeser to be one of the top forwards for this year’s team.
The US is still in pretty good shape overall at forward, but losing two great wingers to injury in Boeser and Max Jones, and having another potential top line wing in Christian Fischer not released for the tournament, leaves the US much thinner up front than they could have been with a group that they’ll likely need to carry their team.