Jon Gillies Sidelined With Upper Body Injury (Perhaps A Concussion)

Aside from the usual discussions of lines and pairings on the first day of training camp, it was a rather light news day. Word from Winsport is that Jonas Hiller and Garnet Hathaway were absent with the flu bug that’s going around, while Jon Gillies was also absent.

Why?

Well, he might have a concussion, stemming from a goal-mouth collision in the second period of Wednesday’s 5-1 win over the University of Calgary Dinos.

Gillies finished the period but didn’t play in the third, being replaced by Medicine Hat Tigers starter Nick Schneider. With Gillies and Hiller not practicing, Schneider practiced with all three playing groups. If nothing else, he got a bunch of ice-time with the Flames goalie coaches.

There’s no specific back-to-play timeline for concussions, as the current policy is player-specific. But typically it means a player’s off-ice for a couple days until they are no longer showing symptoms and are back to their “baseline” levels of a series of tests.

So basically, don’t expect to see Gillies for a couple of days. If nothing else, the Flames are typically cautious with injuries to prospects – especially early in the season – so don’t take his absence necessarily as a cause for panic. With a prospect as highly-touted as Gillies is, they’re going to make sure he’s 100% when they throw him into games.