{"id":607752,"date":"2026-04-26T16:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/607752\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:44:08","slug":"alexander-nikishin-suffers-concussion-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/607752\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Nikishin Suffers Concussion \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

4\/26\/26:\u00a0The Hurricanes issued an update<\/a> on Nikishin\u2019s status Sunday morning, revealing the defenseman was diagnosed with a concussion as a result of Kleven\u2019s hit. Nikishin returned with the team to Raleigh and will continue with the NHL\u2019s concussion protocol there.<\/p>\n

Carolina is set to have a decent break before its next game thanks to the team\u2019s first-round sweep, which increases the likelihood that Nikishin won\u2019t have to miss too much time, though it\u2019s impossible to project a return date with exact certainty at this stage.<\/p>\n

4\/25\/26: Despite earning the sweep over the Ottawa Senators earlier today, it\u2019s not all good news for the Carolina Hurricanes. Defenseman Alexander Nikishin<\/a> exited the game early after being on the receiving end<\/a> of a huge hit from Senators defenseman Tyler Kleven<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nikishin finished the game with one shot, two blocked shots, and one hit across 5:16 of ice time. Before leaving today\u2019s contest, he had averaged over 20 minutes through the first three games of the series, although he remained scoreless. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t look like Nikishin just had the wind knocked out of him. After the game, Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer shared<\/a> a note from head coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour<\/a> that the team fears Nikishin suffered a concussion.<\/p>\n

Still, depending on the severity of the concussion, if that\u2019s what it is, Nikishin may have ample time to recover. Unless the Pittsburgh Penguins pull off a miraculous comeback, the Hurricanes will likely play the Philadelphia Flyers in Round Two, a team they would have a significant advantage against, even without Nikishin. Carolina earned seven points against the Flyers this season in four games.<\/p>\n

Additionally, although it doesn\u2019t directly concern the Hurricanes at the time of writing, the other two Eastern Conference matchups are in tight series and may prolong the start of Round Two. If any Round One series goes to seven games, that could give Nikishin more than a week-and-a-half to recover.<\/p>\n

Regardless, veteran blue liner Mike Reilly<\/a> should begin getting ready for his first playoff action in some time. He was held out of every game in Round One against the Senators, but he was always the first man up in case of injury. Reilly last played in the postseason in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, scoring one goal and two points in five games with the New York Islanders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4\/26\/26:\u00a0The Hurricanes issued an update on Nikishin\u2019s status Sunday morning, revealing the defenseman was diagnosed with a concussion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[264091,4821,10156,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-607752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alexander-nikishin","9":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","10":"tag-injury","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}