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Mark Pysyk won’t play again this year, as mystery injury lingers

A few weeks ago, Mark Pysyk, the promising young Sabres defensive prospect, collapsed during a game of pickup basketball. At the time, doctors couldn’t figure out the reason why Pysyk collapsed, and while he was recently cleared to return to practice, the young blue liner’s mystery injury has now sidelined him for the rest of this season.

Earlier today, Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported that the Sabres and Amerks have shut down Pysyk for the rest of the season, as doctors still can’t figure out why he doesn’t feel 100% going through Amerks practices.

Here’s the scary quotes from Oklobzjia’s report:

Pysyk has been out of the lineup since his Feb. 28 collapse during a three-on-three basketball game with teammates.

He had been working out in hopes of making a return in mid-March, but didn’t feel quite right as the intensity of training sessions increased.

Both Pysyk and the team say doctors haven’t found any reason for his collapse, or for why he doesn’t feel 100 percent after physical activity.

Cassidy suggested on March 22 that Pysyk might be shut down for the rest of the season. He made it official on Tuesday.

“He’s not even back skating and he won’t play this year,” Cassidy said following practice on Tuesday. “He’s not able to do full workouts. The fact he had a setback, what, 10 days after he had been working out, that’s a red flag right there.”

It’s more than slightly concerning that we still don’t have an explanation for Pysyk’s collapse, nor for his inability to recover after recent practices, but kudos to the Sabres and Amerks for taking the right course of action and shutting him down for the rest of the season. Now the organization’s medical staff has the entire offseason to figure out what went wrong, and to make sure it never happens again.

Pysyk has already proven that he can play and play well at the NHL level, and most armchair GMs had him playing an important role in the Sabres rebuild. The quicker we can figure out what’s going on with his health, the quicker we can get back to projecting his future in blue and gold.