Los Angeles Kings star Kevin Fiala‘s leg injury suffered in Switzerland’s loss to Canada is likely season-ending, an NHL source told ESPN on Saturday.
Fiala, 29, was ruled out of the rest of the Milan Cortina Olympic tournament after being stretchered off the ice with what the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation called a lower leg injury. The Swiss said Fiala had surgery on his leg after being hospitalized.
With just under three minutes remaining in Canada’s 5-1 round-robin victory over Switzerland on Friday, Fiala backed into a hit by forward Tom Wilson near the side boards. Their legs became tangled, and they fell to the ice, with Wilson’s full weight on Fiala’s leg. Play was stopped, and Fiala was eventually wheeled off the ice face-down on a stretcher with an air cast on his left leg.
There was no penalty called on the play. Swiss coach Patrick Fischer called the incident “accidental” after the game.
Wilson said the play was “just unlucky” in discussing Fiala’s injury.
“He’s a competitor, obviously. At this point, it’s the Olympic Games, and I feel terrible that he may not be able to keep playing and just sending his family and him my best,” said Wilson, who plays for the Washington Capitals. “You never want to see a guy go down in a tournament like this, especially. It sucks for the country, for their team, and just wishing him a quick recovery.”
Every NHL team has feared losing players to injury when sending them to the Olympic tournament, which is one of the reasons the league has debated participation in the Games through the years. Fiala’s loss is potentially devastating to the Kings, who are three points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference but added former New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin in a trade before the Olympic break. Fiala is second on the team with 40 points in 56 games and second on the team with 18 goals.
“Very obviously sad, and it sucks for him and for us,” Kings teammate Adrian Kempe said after Sweden’s win over Slovakia on Saturday. “It’s really tough for him personally and for us as a team. You know how much he means to our team back home in L.A. It’s just very unfortunate for him that it comes in a tournament like this that we’ve been looking forward to playing in for so long. I feel for him.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
