Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon to miss approximately four weeks with upper-body injury

The Colorado Avalanche got an update on Nathan MacKinnon’s upper-body injury, as we now know that the superstar center will miss approximately four weeks.

MacKinnon left Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers in the first period with the injury. While it’s unclear what caused the injury, it was most noticeable when he keeled over after taking a shot in the first period.

The Avs went on to lose that game 5-3, ending a nightmare road trip that saw them win just one of four games. Despite just 4:58 of ice time in the game, MacKinnon managed an assist before leaving the game.

While the Avs haven’t been their usual dominant selves so far this season, MacKinnon certainly has with eight goals, 26 assists, and 34 points in 23 games this season. He’s coming off one of his better seasons in 2021-22, where he had 88 points in 65 games, and was a big part of the Avs Cup win with 24 points in 20 games in the playoffs.

The 2013 first overall pick has spent the entirety of his 10 season career with the Avalanche. He’s in the final year of his infamously cheap seven year contract with a $6.3 million cap hit, but next season he becomes the highest paid player in the league when his eight year extension with a $12.6 million cap hit kicks in.

It’s another injury on the growing list for the Avalanche, who have been losing players left and right, especially in their top six forward group. Gabriel Landeskog hasn’t played a game this season so far, and Valeri Nichushkin got hurt after a red hot seven game start to the season. On top of that, Darren Helm joins Landeskog on LTIR, while Josh Manson, Kurtis MacDermid, Bowen Byram, and Shane Bowers are all on IR with Nichushkin.