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When the World Cup of Hockey begins in just a couple weeks time we won't see Sean Monahan suiting up for Team North America.

The 21-year-old center, fresh off signing a seven-year extension with the Calgary Flames, has pulled out of the tournament due to what appears to be a very minor back injury.

"Sean Monahan has sustained a back strain during his pre-season training & ... will not be able to participate in the upcoming World Cup."

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) September 2, 2016

"We anticipate that this is not a long term issue and plan on having Sean healthy and ready for the start of our training camp."

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) September 2, 2016

I think this is precautionary as much as anything else. If the World Cup didn't exist and the Flames had a regular season game in a couple weeks I have no doubt Monahan would be in the lineup.

In my opinion this is the Flames using any excuse to pull him from the tournament to ensure he doesn't get hurt more so than he is actually injured and his performance would have been noticeably worse.

Either way, he'll be good to go when training camp opens up and that's all that matters.

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