The Calgary Flames will face the defending Stanley Cup champions without their best shutdown defender. That’s the report, per Sportsnet’s Eric Francis, who posted on social media on Tuesday morning that Chris Tanev won’t play against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night.

Tanev left Monday’s game against Colorado just 15 seconds in after absorbing a hard hit from Ross Colton along the end boards. He skated off the ice under his own power, hunched over in pain, and did not return. With Tanev’s absence from the lineup, we can expect Jordan Oesterle to slot into the Flames’ defensive group after being a recent healthy scratch.

Tanev’s in the fourth and final year of a four-year deal signed in the 2020 off-season. He’s enjoyed a bit of a career resurgence with the Flames, serving as a tremendous boost defensively to whoever he played alongside. He also managed to largely avoid injuries during the first chunk of his deal with the Flames, missing zero games in 2020-21 or 2021-22 despite playing like Chris Tanev – which is to say, he throws his body around to help his team with almost reckless abandon. (He went through shoulder surgery following the 2021-22 season.)

Tanev missed 17 games last season with various injuries. He’s a player who is beloved by teammates for his “warrior” mentality, which usually means crashing, banging, and playing through injuries that make fans and media members wince when they’re described in any detail.

As a pending free agent, Tanev is seen as a very valuable trade commodity, as playoff-bound teams would see him as an invaluable piece of a championship puzzle. But Tanev would need to be sufficiently healthy for the Flames to be able to put together a trade before the March 8, 2024 trade deadline.

We’ll have more updates on Tanev’s status as they become available.