Undisclosed injury keeps Giants’ Benson out of game
Tyler Benson missing a game with an injury is cause for concern for Vancouver Giants fans, considering what happened last season.
The team captain and first-line left-winger missing a game in Edmonton takes it to another level.
Benson, an Edmonton native who was a second-round draft pick of the Oilers last summer and recently signed a three-year entry-level deal with the club, was pulled out of the Giants lineup for a Wednesday visit to the Edmonton Oil Kings with a “minor injury,” according to a press release from Vancouver general manager Glen Hanlon.
It’s safe to suggest that if Benson wanted to play any road game this season, it would be at Rogers Place, the rink the Oil Kings share with the Oilers. He undoubtedly had a large contingent of family and friends coming to watch him.
Benson, 18, missed 42 games last season recovering from surgery to remove a cyst near this tailbone and then from an inflamed pubic bone.
Benson, the first overall pick in the 2013 WHL bantam draft, missed Vancouver’s first five games this season at Oilers training camp, although he never suited up for a game with the NHL club due to a shoulder injury he suffered in a Sept. 11 Giants pre-season game in Ladner.
He had played every Vancouver game since his return, and has produced 42 points, including 11 goals, in 33 games so far. That had him first on the team in scoring going into Wednesday.
The Giants aren’t saying what’s ailing him now. He didn’t play a shift in overtime in Vancouver’s 5-4 shootout win on the road Monday against the Calgary Hitmen, but did take one of their shootout attempts.
A post-game interview with him following Vancouver’s 4-2 loss to the Kamloops Blazers at the Langley Events Centre last Friday was held up for a few minutes while he was getting treatment in the team’s medical room.
Vancouver carried a 15-20-1-2 record into Wednesday’s game and were nine points behind the Seattle Thunderbirds for the eighth and final spot.
The WHL trade deadline is Tuesday. Word around the league is that Hanlon has been telling teams that he’s not interested in trading players the Giants think will be back next season, and Benson would fall into that category.
Hanlon admitted in the press release that the Giants worked in “consultation” with the Oilers on Benson’s status. You can argue that suggests the injury could be serious. You can also argue that the Oilers would have someone check in on Benson no matter what, since he’s in their building.
The big club is on the road, playing in Boston on Thursday.
The Giants are listing Benson as “day-to-day.”