Lightning’s Brayden Point leaves game against Jets with undisclosed injury

The Tampa Bay Lightning announced that center Brayden Point will not be returning to Sunday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets due to an undisclosed injury.

Point left the game midway through the first period, and while the cause of the injury is not known, he appeared to be grabbing his groin after his power play goal. He did not come out with the team in the second period, and the Lightning announced that he wouldn’t return to the game shortly after.

The Lightning have yet to disclose the specifics of the injury, including where it is, the severity of it, and when Point is expected to return to the lineup.

Point leaves the game with the 2-0 goal in 3:47 of ice-time, although the Lightning have since blown that lead.

Point has had a relatively standard start to the season by his expectations, as he has 8 goals and 5 assists for 13 points in 12 games. Assuming his injury doesn’t keep him out of the lineup, he’s on pace for 88 points in a full season, which is on par with his past two seasons that have seen him put up 95 and 90 points.

Through the first two periods of Sunday’s game, Nick Paul has had the most ice time in place of Point on the top line with Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel. Paul has 4 goals and 6 assists for 10 points in 11 games heading into Sunday’s game, and already has an assist playing on that line.

Point was a third-round pick for the Lightning in the 2014 NHL Draft out of the WHL, and after two more productive seasons with the Moose Jaw Warriors and a brief stint in the AHL in 2014-15 with the Syracuse Crunch, he made his NHL debut in the 2016-17 season. He is currently in his ninth season with the Bolts, winning two Stanley Cups with the team in 2020 and 2021.

Point is currently in the third year of an eight-year contract with a $9.5 million cap hit.