The Winnipeg Jets have received new news about injured forward Bryan Little and he is expected to miss considerable time.
It feels like a long time ago that Bryan Little sustained a gruesome injury in the Winnipeg Jets game on November 4th, 2019 against the New Jersey Devils. Little was skating to the side of the Devils net and Nikolaj Ehlers took a hard wayward slap shot, which hit Little on the side of his head. It was an extremely scary scene and as a result of taking a puck off the head, Little suffered a perforated ear drum.
As the weeks and months went by there was no sign of return in sight for Little. Mid-January provided a glimmer of hope for the thirty-two year old, when he practiced wearing a no contact jersey. Unfortunately, Little did not return to the Jets and was ruled out for the remainder of season on February 16th. (*All injury update dates provided by CBS Sports*)
There was a chance that Little would return for the 2020 NHL postseason, but ultimately Little was left out off the phase three training camp roster due to his injury.
That brings us to now:
Jets general manager, Kevin Cheveldayoff, has recently just provided an update on Little’s condition. Team doctors have recommend that Little does not play this upcoming season.
This is extremely heartbreaking news for a player who was Winnipeg’s iron man the past couple of seasons. In fact over his thirteen year NHL career, Little has played in all of the Jets regular season games four times. He played in all 48 games during the 2012-2013 half season and all 82 games during all of the 2013-2014, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 campaigns.
Bryan Little was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers as the twelfth overall selection in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Little’s whole career has been with the Thrashers/Jets. In his 843 career games played he has 217 goals and 304 assists for 521 points. Little has participated in the playoffs three times and has 12 points in 27 postseason games.
We wish Bryan Little the best on his road to recovery and we hope to see him back on the ice for the Jets in the future.