Islanders’ Maxim Shabanov out vs. Red Wings, day-to-day with upper-body injury

New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy announced that forward Maxim Shabanov will miss Thursday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, as he is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

At this point in time, the cause of Shabanov’s injury is not known. He didn’t have a shift in the final 10 minutes of Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks, but neither did Casey Cizikas and Maxim Tsyplakov, so that could have been more for deployment reasons than injury reasons.

With Shabanov’s status being day-to-day, he isn’t expected to miss a lot of time with his injury. It’s possible that he could even return as soon as Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Shabanov has had a solid start to his NHL career, as he already has one goal and two assists for three points in six games for the Islanders this season. That production has him tied for 10th in rookie scoring, with Islanders teammate Matthew Schaefer leading the way with seven points.

With Shabanov out of the lineup, Simon Holmstrom will move up the lineup to replace Shabanov on the third line alongside Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau. This trio has a 100% 5v5 expected goal share in 3:18 of ice time together this season.

In addition, Kyle MacLean is expected to draw into the lineup on the fourth line. He has no points in two games so far this season.

Shabanov was a signing for the Islanders out of the KHL, as 23 goals, 44 assists and 67 points in 65 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk put him on the team’s radar as being able to play at the NHL level. He’s currently signed to a one-year, $975,000 contract and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the season.

The Islanders will look to extend their winning streak to four games when they host the Red Wings at 7 p.m. EST on Thursday. New York currently sits in last in the Metropolitan Division with a 3-3-0 record.