Ottawa Senators’ defenseman Artem Zub to miss three to four weeks with jaw injury

The Ottawa Senators have been dealt a significant blow to their blueline.

Head coach D.J. Smith said after the team’s practice on Monday that Zub is dealing with a jaw injury and that he could miss three to four weeks of play.

D.J. Smith says Artem Zub could miss 3-4 weeks after suffering a jaw injury on Friday in New York.

— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) December 5, 2022

Zub, 27, missed Ottawa’s game against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday after suffering the injury the previous night in a game against the New York Rangers.

Signed as an undrafted free agent out of the KHL back in May of 2020, Zub has developed into a key part of the Senators’ defense over the past three seasons. In 2022-23, Zub has two goals and four points over 14 games and is logging 22:01 per game on average, which ranks second on the Senators behind only his defensive partner, Thomas Chabot.

Zub is currently in the second season of a two-year, $5 million contract signed back in May of 2021. He’ll be eligible to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

With Zub out of the lineup against the Sharks, veteran defenseman Nikita Zaitsev lined up on the team’s top pairing alongside Chabot. Zaitsev has appeared in nine games for the Senators this season and cleared through waivers back in November.