Red Wings D DeKeyser out 3-4 weeks (foot)

The Detroit Red Wings will be without top-four defenseman Danny DeKeyser when they open the season next week and perhaps for the first month of 2015-16. The talented blueliner suffered a sprained ligament in his left foot during the team’s preseason game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night. He is expected to miss three to four weeks, according to general manager Ken Holland.

That’s a tough break for the Wings, who are already expected to be without Pavel Datsyuk for at least the first month of the season, if not more. The club is also missing Darren Helm, who suffered a concussion and shoulder injury on the first day of training camp in an on-ice collision.

As a team that has dealt with its fair share of injury woes over the past few seasons, this is obviously not the way you want to start off the 2015-16 campaign, especially with a new coach behind the bench.

It’s also particularly frustrating that offseason signing Mike Green, who just spent the past few weeks nursing a groin injury, will have to start the year without DeKeyser, who was expected to be Green’s D partner.

The 25-year-old DeKeyser appeared in 80 games last season and posted a career-best 31 points while averaging nearly 21 minutes of ice time.

DeKeyser’s absence could open the door for others in camp to seize a roster spot at least to start the season. Alexey Marchenko, Xavier Ouellet and Brian Lashoff all have NHL experience and should be able to fill in, but losing DeKeyser depletes the defensive talent enough to cause some concern.

The Red Wings open the season at home on Oct. 9 against former coach Mike Babcock and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Danny DeKeyser will be out 3-4 weeks with a sprained ligament in his foot. (USATSI)

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