Carl Hagelin Suffered a Career Threatening Eye Injury at Capitals' Practice

Washington Capitals F Carl Hagelin was absent from their playoff series against the Florida Panthers due to eye surgery. Customarily, when teams are eliminated their injured list comes out shortly after, and Tom Wilson's knee injury & Carl Hagelin's eye injury headlined the list. Hagelin under went surgery a couple of weeks ago.

Hagelin's eye injury was a result of a stick blade during practice. However, the nature & extent of the injury were kept under wraps, as is typical during playoffs, aside from the fact that he underwent surgery for it. Upon clarification by Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, it appears Hagelin's eye injury will impair his vision at least partially going forward:


Generally, this sort of injury is not unprecedented. Dany Heatley played NHL games while only having 50% of his eyeballs working. More recently, Marc Staal suffered a gruesome eye injury nine years ago. Video link below but just to reiterate: Gruesome.



As reported by Gulitti, Hagelin has been in touch with the veteran defenseman & says he's been helpful, both in wisdom & in spirits. Having gone through it himself and played to tell the tale. The incident led to all three Staal brothers applying the visor after initially resisting the idea. A family decision, no doubt, showing both solidarity with their brother & a serious change in perception regarding the seriousness of eye injuries.

Hagelin's career is on the back nine as it is, but he's been a very useful player since his debut in 2011 with the New York Rangers. He seems optimistic that he'll be able to return to the NHL but has a lot of work to do. Hopefully, he's able to suit up again.