Sean Monahan to miss final four games with hip injury

The Calgary Flames will be without one of their top offensive players for the final four games of their season. The club announced that forward Sean Monahan is being shut down due to a hip issue that he’s scheduled to have surgery on next week.

Monahan, 26, has been consistently one of the team’s best goal-scorers since being selected in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft. He has scored 204 goals in 591 NHL games, or about a goal every 2.9 games.

But Monahan has also been battered with injuries over the past few seasons, seemingly undergoing a surgery after every season after probably playing through fairly significant injuries for awhile.

It’s likely a product of the type of game he plays and the types of goals he scores; Monahan is, as the scouts put it, a guy that scores goals in the “dirty areas” in front of the net and around the blue paint. You know, the types of areas where players eat tons of cross-checks and slashes to score goals. Coincidentally, cross-checks and slashes lead to the types of surgeries that Monahan has required over the past few seasons.

Hopefully Monahan can get back up to 100% for the fall and the return of “regular” hockey to North America.