Tampa Bay Lightning’s Conor Sheary leaves game early with upper-body injury

The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that winger Conor Sheary will not return to Tuesday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens due to an upper-body injury.

The injury occurred early in the first period, although it’s unknown what caused the injury. Sheary, 31, skated in just one shift in the game before leaving, so it’s possible that the injury was already lingering before the game began and he aggravated it during that shift, or it happened during the shift, although there was no event of note that could be flagged as the reason. There’s no confirmation as to the severity of the injury, or how long Sheary will be out of the lineup to recover from it.

Sheary had one goal and two assists for three points through 12 games so far this season, a bit of a slow start by the standard that he’s set in his career as a 30-40 point player. He’s been a solid goal scorer at even strength given his minutes, as his 0.84 5v5 goals per 60 minutes since 2020 is tied for 71st in the league among players with at least 2500 minutes of ice time. He’s also a very effective penalty drawer, with 37 drawn penalties overall and 14 more than he’s taken in that same span, which is tied for 49th in the league.

Sheary was a college free agent signing by the Pittsburgh Penguins, first spending two seasons with their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, before signing an entry-level contract and making the NHL team in 2015, and then went on to win two Stanley Cups with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017. He’s played for the Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals, and now the Lightning over the course of his nine-season NHL career.

Sheary is currently in the first year of a three-year contract with a $2 million cap hit that he signed with the Lightning in the 2023 offseason.

So far Nikita Kucherov and Alex Barre-Boulet have been the most frequent replacements for Sheary on the Lightning’s second line with Steven Stamkos and Nick Paul. Currently the only other forward on the roster to sub into the lineup for Sheary if he misses some more games is Austin Watson, who was a healthy scratch for Tuesday’s game. Watson is currently pointless through four games with the Lightning this season.