Rumor: Anders Nilsson's NHL future appears to be in doubt.

The Ottawa Senators made a big move in the offseason when they traded for veteran goaltender Matt Murray, and it would appear now that there was a very clear motivation behind that decision. 

Although many had initially expected that goaltender Anders Nilsson would be the starter for the Senators in the 2021 National Hockey League regular season, at least prior to the acquisition of Murray, it instead seems as though some rather serious injury concerns have now put Nilsson's future in doubt. Nilsson has been sidelined for almost a full year now and according to recent reports from Ottawa Senators insider Bruce Garrioch it sounds very much like he will remain on the sidelines for at least the short term future. 

Nilsson initially suffered the injury on December 19th of 2019 but according to Garrioch he continues to suffer from post concussion symptoms even now, 11 months after the fact, with the insider adding that there is now an expectation that Nilsson will begin the season on long term injured reserve. The Ottawa Senators were unwilling to confirm that fact, stating that they preferred to wait and have Nilsson evaluated by their medical staff prior to making any kind of formal announcement on that topic. 

Nilsson made just 20 total appearances for the Senators last season and posted mediocre numbers with a 3.18 goals against average and a .908 save percentage over that stretch. I will give him some benefit of the doubt here by adding that he was playing on one of the worst teams in the NHL which no doubt impacted his performance both directly and indirectly.

At 30 years old Nilsson, who was drafted in the 3rd round (62nd overall) of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Islanders, in theory should have a lot of hockey left in him, but we have seen head injuries of this nature take a long term toll on players before. The good news here is that the Senators realize this and Senators goaltending coach Pierre Groulx confirmed this week that this is exactly where the team's concerns are at this time when it comes to Nilsson.

"You don’t want to see that happen but it’s an injury where you have to think of the health first," said Groulx as per Garrioch. "We’ll see what happens when he comes into Ottawa."