Red Wings’ J.T. Compher day-to-day with upper-body injury

Detroit Red Wings left winger J.T. Compher is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan confirmed to Max Bultman of The Athletic on Monday.

Compher’s injury will keep him out of the lineup Monday when the Red Wings take on the Los Angeles Kings. On the season, Compher has made 48 appearances with Detroit in which he has registered six goals and 15 assists for 21 points with a plus-four rating. Skating in his second with the Red Wings, Compher closed out 2023-24 with 48 points – four shy of his career high – counting 19 goals and 29 assists coming in 77 contests.

Signing with the Red Wings in 2023 as an unrestricted free agent, Compher spent the prior seven seasons with the Colorado Avalanche. His most impressive campaign in Denver came in his final season with Avalanche, when he notched 17 goals and 35 assists through 82 appearances. Compher was also part of the Avalanche squad that hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2022, recording eight points in 20 postseason outings en route to the championship.

In all, the 29-year-old native of Northbrook, Ill., has seen 548 career contests with the Avalanche and Red Wings in which he has tallied 113 goals with 150 assists for 263 points. Compher was originally chosen 35th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2013 NHL Draft.

Per PuckPedia, Compher is in the second year of five-year contract that carries a $5.1-million annual average value.

Entering Monday’s contest against the Kings, the Red Wings are riding two-game win streak and sit 23-21-5 on the season, four points shy of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference. The Red Wings have not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2016, the NHL’s second-longest postseason drought behind only the Sabres.