Hurricanes’ Jack Drury leaves game with upper-body injury

Carolina Hurricanes center Jack Drury (18) looks on against the Florida Panthers before the start of the game against the Florida Panthers at Lenovo Center.

Credit: © James Guillory

The Carolina Hurricanes announced that center Jack Drury will not return to Tuesday’s game against the San Jose Sharks due to an upper-body injury.

Jack Drury will miss the remainder of tonight’s game against San Jose with an upper-body injury

— Hurricanes PR (@CanesPR) December 11, 2024

Drury suffered the injury late in the first period of the game after blocking a shot, and he left for the dressing room shortly after, with the team confirming he wouldn’t return at the start of the second period.

Drury left the game with a hit, a giveaway and that blocked shot in 3:06 of ice time, with the Canes up 1-0 at the time of his departure.

There are currently no further details on the injuries, like the specifics and severity of it and how long he’s expected to be out of the lineup. We will likely get more information from Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour either after the game or before Friday’s game against the San Jose Sharks.

With Drury out of the game, the Canes have mostly abandoned the line that consisted of himself, Jackson Blake and Eric Robinson, instead inserting the other two forwards on their other three lines.

Should Drury miss more action than tonight’s game, they will likely need to recall someone from their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, as the only player listed as a healthy scratch for Tuesday’s game on their roster report is goaltender Frederik Andersen.

Drury is currently producing at a similar rate to last season, as he has 3 goals and 6 assists for 9 points in 28 games so far this year. Should he continue at this pace, it would give him 26 points on the year, just one point fewer than his 27 points from last season.

Drury was a second-round pick for the Hurricanes in the 2018 NHL Draft, making his NHL debut for the Canes in the 2021-22 season for two games before solidifying a role on the NHL squad during the 2022-23 season. He’s now in his fourth season in the NHL.

Drury is in the first year of a two-year contract with a $1.725 million cap hit.