Kevin Fiala injury is the NHL’s biggest fear

Key Highlights

• The NHL has been uneasy for allowing its players to play in the Olympics due to injuries. Anyway you look at it, this is a serious blow not only to Team Switzerland for the rest of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo, but to a Los Angeles Kings organization that is struggling to score goals.
• This also makes the Kings’s recent acquisition of Artemi Panarin even more significant. Fiala follows in Tavares’s shoesThe last time we saw a serious injury by a National Hockey League player at the Olympic Winter Games came in 2014 in the quarterfinal game between Canada and Latvia.
• In this tilt, Canadian Tavares tore his medial collarteral ligament and his meniscus in his left knee.
• Like Fiala, Tavares collided into the side boards. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFiala’s NHL statistics this seasonIn 56 games for the Kings, Fiala has 18 goals and 22 assists for 40 points.
• He his a -11 with 34 penalty minutes, 17 power-play points, two game-winning goals, 147 shots on goal, seven faceoff wins, 24 blocked shots, 39 hits, 19 takeaways and 75 giveaways. Fiala’s first game-winning goal this season came on October 26 in a 3-1 Kings win over the Chicago Blackhawks.