{"id":142719,"date":"2025-09-14T06:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/142719\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T06:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:19:07","slug":"injury-notes-power-molendyk-walton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/142719\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury Notes: Power, Molendyk, Walton"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there was any concern that the knee injury Buffalo Sabres defenseman Owen Power<\/a> suffered late last season would impact his readiness for 2025-26, those fears can be put to rest. According to Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic<\/a>, Power \u201cshould be ready to go\u201d for Sabres training camp and has been in Buffalo skating with teammates ahead of training camp. Fairburn added that Power \u201cseemed to avoid the worst-case scenario\u201d in terms of his injury, and Fairburn added that the injury should not be cause to lower expectations for Power\u2019s upcoming season.<\/p>\n

The upcoming season is a crucial one of the 2021 first-overall pick, as it is the second year of his massive eight-year, $8.35MM AAV contract extension. The 22-year-old blueliner offers rare offensive ability for a defenseman his size, and he set career-highs in 2024-25 by scoring seven goals and 40 points. But Power at times has been a lightning rod for criticism in Buffalo for his lack of physicality<\/a> (something made all the more noticeable due to the fact that he stands six-foot-six, 226-pounds) and the fact that his steady personal improvement has not resulted in a major reversal of on-ice fortunes for the Sabres franchise as a whole. So, it is good news for both Power and the Sabres that his late-season injury does not look as though it will impact his ability to perform in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

Other injury updates from across the league:<\/p>\n

Nashville Predators prospect Tanner Molendyk<\/a> was the subject of an injury scare<\/a> Thursday after taking a hit during one of the team\u2019s rookie tournament practices in Tampa. At the time, The Tennessean\u2019s Alex Daugherty reported that Molendyk\u2019s absence from the rest of practice appeared precautionary, and today Daugherty confirmed that Molendyk indeed avoided major damage. Daugherty said today<\/a> that Molendyk\u2019s injury \u201cisn\u2019t serious,\u201d and that while he may not return to the ice in Tampa, \u201che will be fine\u201d for the team\u2019s main training camp next week. The 2023 first-round pick is set to begin his pro career and was recently ranked by EliteProspects as the club\u2019s fourth-best prospect<\/a>.
\nWinnipeg Jets prospect Kieron Walton<\/a> will not return to the team\u2019s rookie contest tonight in Montreal, according to team reporter Jamie Thomas<\/a>. Per his report, an upper-body injury is to blame. While it\u2019s entirely possible that Walton was taken out of the game for largely precautionary reasons in order to protect his health in advance of the team\u2019s full training camp, that is not clear at this time. Walton, 19, is a 2024 sixth-rounder whose stock as a prospect skyrocketed after a breakout 2024-25 campaign, one in which he scored 38 goals and 92 points for the OHL\u2019s Niagara IceDogs. The 6\u20196 center is a long-shot to make the Jets out of training camp and any potential injury would only hurt his chances to make an impression in camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there was any concern that the knee injury Buffalo Sabres defenseman Owen Power suffered late last season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[741,49,48,5718,76527,760,448,76528,82,74219,449],"class_list":{"0":"post-142719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-injury","12":"tag-kieron-walton","13":"tag-nashville-predators","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-owen-power","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tanner-molendyk","18":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}