Nick Schultz out for 4-7 days with lower-body injury

Prospects like Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim are using the preseason and training camp as a way to state their cases for being ready for the rigors of an NHL season. But for the veterans, these three weeks are considered successful if they are able to reacclimate themselves into hockey mode following the offseason, and if they can avoid injury.

Unfortunately for Nick Schultz, he was tripped up by the latter pothole last night.

Prior to tonight's game in Allentown between the Flyers and New Jersey Devils, general manager Ron Hextall announced to the assembled media that Schultz would miss 4-7 days with a lower-body injury.

Nick Schultz is out 4-7 days with a "lower-body injury" after crashing into the boards last night.

— Dave Isaac (@davegisaac) September 28, 2016

As Isaac noted, Schultz suffered the injury sliding into the boards after getting his legs tangled with an Islanders player.

Schultz a bit shaken up from sliding into the boards on this play pic.twitter.com/D9YJmbAM4C

— Joe Dought (@JoeR35h93) September 28, 2016

Luckily for Schultz, the injury doesn't appear to be that serious, as he's expected to miss a week at most. Still, you never like to see a player get hurt, even if he'll only be out for meaningless preseason contests.

The general sentiment surrounding Schultz's roster status is that he is basically a lock to make the opening night roster, though his spot on the defense surely isn't quite as secure as those of Shayne Gostisbehere, Michael Del Zotto, Radko Gudas, and Mark Streit. This brief absence could give one of the youngsters a chance to make a chance to usurp Schultz on the roster, but the most likely scenario is that Schultz will be there on October 14th regardless.

Hopefully Schultz returns sooner rather than later to justify keeping that spot.