Jack Eichel on Golden Knights teammate Shea Theodore’s injury at 4 Nations: ‘Really sucks for our team’

MONTREAL — Jack Eichel got a queasy feeling Wednesday night when he watched Vegas Golden Knights teammate Shea Theodore injure his right arm during the opening game of the 4 Nations Face-Off.

The feeling turned to nausea Thursday when he woke up to news from Canada coach Jon Cooper that Theodore will be out for the rest of the tournament followed by the Golden Knights announcing the veteran defenseman is week-to-week with the injury.

“First and foremost, I just feel for him personally,” Eichel told The Athletic. “Not only having to deal with the injury, but I know how much this event meant to him and what representing his country and being here and being on this team, what it meant to him. So emotionally I’m sure he’s dealing with it now, and it’s probably a pretty tough one to process.”

“But it really sucks for our team.”

Theodore, 29, has had a fabulous career, but this eighth season in Vegas has largely been considered his best. The 2023 Stanley Cup champion and all-time Vegas leader among defensemen in goals, assists and points has already posted his sixth consecutive 40-point season.

“He’s our catalyst back there, and he’s been so good for us all season,” Eichel said, shaking his head. “He’s not someone you can replace. And we’re already pretty banged up. So hopefully he can get healthy soon and he’s out shorter than expected.”

Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon didn’t want to comment Thursday when reached, but he did talk to The Athletic last month about the risk of injuries with, at the time, seven Golden Knights selected to the tournament. Canada’s Alex Pietrangelo and Sweden’s William Karlsson subsequently bowed out because of maladies.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” McCrimmon said in mid-January. “I equate it to when I worked in the Western League with the Brandon Wheat Kings when you’d have a player make the World Juniors team. So you lose that player for a month, you run the risk of injury — all of those things are possibilities — but they come back better players. And when I look at the group we’ve got going to 4 Nations, we’ve got four Canadians, two U.S., one Swede and a coach, yeah, there’s part of you that wishes they were getting a long rest like most of the players in (the) league are going to, avoiding the risk of injury. But at the same time, this experience will make all of those players better.

“It’s going to help (Canada assistant coach) Bruce Cassidy as a coach. It’s going to help Jack, Noah (Hanifin), any of these players that are involved — it’s going to be a real, just a great experience for them. And it’s a feather in the cap of the organization to have seven players that are going to be involved, six of them North American teams. So we’re proud of that.

“And I’m not really nervous about any of that right now. Likely when the tournament starts and you see how physical the first period of the first game is, might cross your mind, but really happy for them and really looking forward to seeing those games, seeing how they do.”

Internationally, Theodore had previously medaled in three tournaments: the 2019 World Championship (silver), 2015 World Junior Championship (gold) and 2013 Under-18 World Championship (gold).

As Cooper said after Wednesday’s game, “It’s heartbreaking for the kid.”

Travis Sanheim, the extra defenseman on the roster, will replace Theodore in Canada’s lineup Saturday night when it faces the United States.

“Obviously, you worry about him,” Sanheim said Thursday. “You don’t want to see anyone get hurt. I just obviously felt for him and knew how big it meant to be a part of this. Just try to be there for him. Unfortunate circumstance that he got injured.”

Canada is permitted to identify a “next man up” defenseman so it can alert that vacationing player in case another blueliner gets hurt. But that defenseman can’t be added to the roster or take part in any team activities unless Canada loses another defenseman.