It looks like newly re-signed Wings defenceman Mike Green will not be able to start the season with his team, per Helene St. James.

This fatigue is most likely associated with his most recent offseason surgery and that has led to possibly seeing a specialist in the upcoming days before preseason is finished.

Could be a number of things, but a virus is certainly a possibility according to General Manager Ken Holland. From St. James’ article, “we don’t really know the extent of exactly what he has got,” Holland said. “But we are shutting him down pending what information we get from a specialist.”

Green was supposed to be able to start the season and appear for some late preseason games, but that looks extremely unlikely now.

This now opens some doors of opportunity for some young players on the blueline to stay a little longer than expected.

Dennis Cholowski has been wowing everyone at camp and in the preseason games he has played. The 2016 first-round pick is a very mobile defenceman that can make a nice breakout pass and take control of the blueline in the offensive zone.

Libor Sulak and Filip Hronek are two other offensively-minded defenseman that will get a better look at now that Green might be out for the start of the season. Sulak is a 24-year-old left-handed shot blueliner, so certainly he is not on the young side of prospects – but he has certainly impressed with his skating and shooting ability. Just last night against the Blackhawks, Sulak had four shots-on-goal.

Hronek is the younger of the two, but his rookie campaign with the Griffins made management salivate at his potential to become a key powerplay quarterback in the future. He has some trouble on the defensive side of the game, but he can certainly skate the puck up the ice with extreme ease.

From GM Holland: “Now we have five D, and we are probably going to start with seven,” Holland said. “Now, how long is Mike Green out? Certainly, it appears he is going to be out for a little period of time. So probably we are going to start with two of these defense prospects – either Sulak or Hicketts or Cholowski or Hronek.”

This might be an exciting time to watch this team and get a glimmer of the future on the blueline. Maybe one of the young prospects will impress so much that he stays up with the big club for the rest of the season?

This appears to be much more serious than initially thought.

It looks almost a sure thing that Green will be missing at least the first couple games of the Red Wings season. At least it’s not a spinal or neck injury that requires even more surgery, but it might take a while for Green to get back to his normal self on the ice.

We have seen other cases of viruses having an effect on the ice before. Most notably the mumps outbreak back in the 2014-15 regular season.

Even with certain prospects like Timothy Liljegren, having a virus can affect a whole season. Liljegren was diagnosed with mono early in his draft year and that is why he played not as great as many scouts thought he would, therefore dropping in the first round.

We hope that Green takes his time and fully recovers from this virus, so that he doesn’t struggle to catch up with his teammates at the beginning of the season.