Ahead of what would have been Blackhawks center Kirby Dach's sophomore season, the 19-year-old forward suffered a right wrist fracture during an exhibition game at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship that required surgery on Monday.
Dach, who was named captain of Team Canada ahead of the tournament, suffered the injury on Dec. 23 in the exhibition opener of World Juniors after he collided with a Russian player at center ice.
Related: Blackhawks center Kirby Dach opens up about wrist injury
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Blackhawks President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Stan Bowman joined NBC Sports Chicago's Blackhawks Talk Podcast to discuss a variety of topics related to the team, including the decision to grant Dach permission to play in World Juniors.
"This is something that came up a while ago. Kirby, in talking to him and his agent, obviously Team Canada was very interested in having him there and this was something that was a great opportunity for him to play a leadership role," Bowman said on the podcast. "The tournament was going to be outside of our season. There's always a risk of injury, and obviously what happened to Kirby is the worst case scenario. It's a very low probability of that happening. If you look at the number of games that have taken place in the World Juniors or any Olympic type of events, you can count on one hand the number of times [someone] has gotten hurt. So we knew that was a possibility going in, but it was a bit of a fluke play.
"So I think the opportunity is something Kirby vocalized to us as a great honor to play for your country and play a big role. We didn't know at the time that he was going to be named captain, but that was another growth opportunity for Kirby on that stage to be chosen to lead a great team, Team Canada. It's almost a whole team of first-round picks, a highly talented group, it's Kirby's last opportunity to play internationally for Canada in the World Junior event. So with that in mind, it would have been a great story, great growth opportunity for him, not only as an on-ice player, but all the intangibles that go along with leading Team Canada.
"And if Kirby's still playing, right now we're talking about things differently. Obviously it went a different way and there's no question that it's very, very unfortunate, I feel for Kirby first and foremost. He's the one that's dealing with injury, but as much as we want to, we can't take that away. Just like when the Olympics come around, if the NHL players are part of that, they have been in the past, if they decide to be part of it in the future, that's the way it works. We would [handle it] sort of the same way. You're supportive of your players when it's a great opportunity for them.
NHL
"So this is a bad outcome, no question about it, but this is the nature of sports and like I said a few minutes ago, we care about Kirby, want to do our best to get him taken care of. I think he's had great medical care and he's on the mend and we'll do our best to get him back to playing on his own timeline."