Golden Knights’ Zach Whitecloud Status Uncertain With Lower-Body Injury

The Vegas Golden Knights lost to the Dallas Stars 2-1 in the shootout Saturday evening. They also lost defenseman Zach Whitecloud to an apparent left leg injury in the third period. Roope Hintz fell on Whitecloud's left leg after he was cross-checked by Brayden McNabb. Whitecloud did not return.

Here's what head coach Bruce Cassidy had to say about Whitecloud's injury specifically—

"Lower-body. He's in there and doing okay. We are all hopeful that it looked worse than it may turn out to be. We won't know until we get home."

The VGK had to play a defenseman down for the remaining 9:46 of regulation and 5:00 of overtime.

"It was next man up. Obviously you don't like seeing that especiallt after he just came back not too long ago. It was next man up and we had to keep shifts shorter in the third," said defenseman Ben Hutton.

Earlier in the season, Whitecloud missed 21 games with a lower-body injury, this time to his right leg as Taylor Hall fell on it. The VGK are currently without Shea Theodore on the back end. Daniil Miromanov is also currently injured with the Henderson Silver Knights.

On a more positive note, the Golden Knights have the insurance of Ben Hutton recently, who has five points in his lasst six games after he sat out a big chunk of the season as a healthy scratch. Having Hutton step in and not miss a beat has been critical to the VGK's defensive sucess.

"I'm feeling pretty good. Obvioulsy I sat out for a long time there and then tried to build some confidence there in the first few games. Now I am just trying to help the team win in any way possible," said Hutton.

The Golden Knights have just two games left in the regular season, both against the Seattle Kraken. They start at home on Tuesday at 7 p.m.