Vaakanainen carted off on a stretcher and taken to hospital on Friday night.

Even though it is only the preseason and all the games we've seen so far have only been exhibition matches, there have already been a number of significant injuries across the National Hockey League. We've seen several players go down with a variety of different injuries or ailments, but on Friday night we saw what was perhaps the scariest moment of the preseason yet when Anaheim Ducks defenseman Urho Vaakanainen was seriously shaken up.

The incident occurred during the early moments of an exhibition contest between the Ducks and their intrastate rivals the San Jose Sharks on Friday night, roughly midway through the first period. The Ducks were on the rush and it was actually Vaakanainen himself that created a great scoring chance for the Ducks, setting up fellow Ducks' teammate Derek Grant with a nifty little pass that resulted in the first goal of the game and a 1 - 0 lead for the Ducks in the first.

As Vaakanainen was making the play however he appeared to get his skates tangled up with those of San Jose Sharks defenseman Artemi Kniazev, causing him to fall at an awkward angle. Vaakanainen appeared to lose control of his right leg, sending him sprawling to the ice, but with the forward momentum that he had already built up he was unable to control his momentum or the position of his body, resulting in an ugly collision into the boards. The Ducks defenseman would remain down on the ice for several long moments, eventually resulting in a stretcher being brought out onto the ice and Vaakanainen being loaded onto that stretcher.

Here is a look at the collision itself:

Thankfully, since the incident itself, the Ducks organization has been able to provide an update on the situation and I am happy to report that it sounds like Vaakanainen is going to be ok, at least relatively speaking. According to an official announcement from the Ducks, Vaakanainen was taken to UCI Medical Center for evaluation, is conscious and alert, and has full movement in his extremities. 

Here's to hoping he makes a full and speedy recovery.