TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan — The Red Wings’ 2021 prospect tournament closed with a scare, as defenseman Jared McIsaac had to leave the ice on a stretcher and be transported to a hospital after being hit into the boards and losing consciousness in the first period of the game against Columbus on Sunday.
McIsaac was said to be awake, alert and have feeling in his extremities, and was expected to return to the hotel Sunday night. But it was a wrenching scene at Centre Ice Arena that made everything else secondary. McIsaac, a 2018 second-round pick, has run the gauntlet of injuries in the last two years, including surgeries on both shoulders that cost him significant portions of the past two seasons. On the ice, he was having a strong weekend for Detroit, including playing on the top power-play unit, and seeing him go down hard was tough to watch knowing how much he’s already been through in his young career. The early word on his condition was at least encouraging, though, after the game.
“He’s, thankfully, doing well,” said Griffins coach Ben Simon, who coached the Red Wings prospects in the tournament. “He’s moving his arms, moving his legs, he’s coherent, he’s talking. So it’s not as bad as it initially looked. Obviously it’s a scary situation when a guy does that, but he was talking with our trainers there and we’ll find out more in the morning, but right now the first step was just making sure that he was … moving his feet, and he’s mentally with it. So it’s encouraging that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed initially.
