Canucks Rookie Brock Boeser Out 4-6 weeks With Back Injury

The star rookie left Rogers Arena on a stretcher and was taken to a hospital after a collision in the Canucks' 4-3 overtime win over the New York Islanders on Monday.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser will likely miss the remainder of the NHL season after the team said he will be out four to six weeks with a back injury.

The star rookie left Rogers Arena on a stretcher and was taken to a hospital after a collision in the Canucks' 4-3 overtime win over the New York Islanders on Monday.

Boeser fell into an open gate at the players' bench after trying to make a hit on Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck.

The Canucks said Tuesday that he was diagnosed with a soft-tissue injury and a nonstructural, non-displaced fracture of a transverse process in his lower back.

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The transverse process is a bony projection off side of a vertebra that serves as a point for ligament attachment. Each vertebrae has a transverse process on each side.

The 21-year-old Boeser leads all NHL rookies with 29 goals and is second among rookies with 55 points in 62 games.

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