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New Jersey Devils Prospect Report: Merrill, Gelinas suffer injures & more

October 11, 2012, 11:49 AM ET [8 Comments]
Todd Cordell
New Jersey Devils Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Two of the New Jersey Devils' top defense prospects, Jon Merrill and Eric Gelinas, suffered pretty significant injures over the past couple days. Here are some notes on those injures as well as some other Devils related prospect notes.

- Yesterday Michigan Wolverines Head Coach Red Berenson announced that Jon Merrill suffered a broken 7th vertebra in an exhibition win over Windsor on Tuesday night. Berenson told Michigan Daily that Merrill's vertebra is cracked but not out of place and that he will be immobilized for several weeks. His full recovery is expected to take approximately six weeks.

This was a big developmental year for Merrill and this is a tough injury for him to take. He missed some of last season due to breaking school rules and now he will miss some of this year with the vertabra injury.

Merrill was slated to play with Winnipeg Jets 2012 1st round pick Jacob Trouba to form what many expected to be the best top defense pairing in college hockey. Now he'll have to wait a while to get back in action and play with Trouba.

- Eric Gelinas was hit in the lower part of his face with a puck during Albany's preseason game against Binghamton. Gelinas underwent minor surgery after breaking his jaw, according to Albany GM Chris Lamoriello. There is no set timetable on how long Gelinas will be out for but he will miss some regular season games.

- Defenseman Damon Severson was the only Devils prospect in the CHL that had a game last night. He had an assist and was minus-3 in a 6-4 Kelowna loss to Spokane. Severson has a goal and three assists in seven games so far this season.

- Devils prospect Ben Johnson (Windsor - OHL) is their only CHLer in action tonight.

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