Predators’ Mavrik Bourque, William Trudeau leave game with upper-body injuries

The Nashville Predators may have claimed two points on the road in Thursday’s 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens, but it appears to have come at the cost of two of their players.

Predators forward Mavrik Bourque and defenseman William Trudeau each left Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury. The team confirmed that neither player would return to the game.

The exact cause or nature of Bourque’s injury is unclear, but he did not take a shift for Nashville in the third period.

Bourque, 24, had no goals and an assist over the Predators’ first three games coming into Thursday.

Nashville acquired Bourque, along with defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin, from the Dallas Stars over the offseason in exchange for a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 third-round pick. Last season with the Stars, the Plessisville, Quebec native put up 20 goals and 21 assists for 41 points in all 82 regular season games, before contributing a goal and no assists during Dallas’ first-round playoff loss to the Minnesota Wild in six games.

Trudeau, 23, missed all of the second and third periods on Thursday after leaving the game. The nature of his injury is also unclear.

The Varennes, Quebec native was scoreless in two games played this season coming into Thursday, while averaging just under 11 and half minutes of ice time.

Selected by the Canadiens in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Trudeau was traded to the New York Rangers this past offseason in exchange for forward Brett Berard. After agreeing to a one-year contract with the Rangers, he was waived and subsequently claimed by Nashville ahead of the season. His three games played with the Predators so far represent his first ever NHL action.

Nashville will wrap up a three-game road trip against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.