Tomas Jurco won’t be available until November due to back surgery

Training camp is starting up and with it comes injury news. Players that are young and old come back to camp with their ailments either fixed or flaring up. It is never in between. The young-ish Tomas Jurco has come into camp with a back issue that had to be taken care of with surgery. After six points in 44 games, where do the Red Wings go with Jurco?

The loss to Jurco isn’t that big of a deal and makes decisions for the Red Wings front office that much easier. By the time Jurco is healthy enough, I don’t even think he will have a place on this team. He is offensively minded and is repeatedly ripped for being a defensive liability. Plenty of teams are going to be willing to take the risk, this just seems like a player that is just falling further down the depth chart.

The saving grace in all of this could end up being Jeff Blashill, he coached Jurco in Grand Rapids and could make for a good reclamation project. Jurco is in a similar vein to Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, so I wonder if time in the NHL is better for his development.

Regardless, the clock is ticking on Jurco’s career with the Red Wings. At 24 years of age, he is about to reach his peak and if this is any indication, Jurco isn’t going to be a player worth fighting over.