Darren Helm, Jerome Verrier Collide and are Hospitalized

Training camp is normally a time to get back into the swing of things, getting a feel for how the team’s new makeup fits together and warming up for the new season ahead.

For Detroit Red Wings forward Darren Helm, though, that won’t happen for at least another week — and for team hopeful Jerome Verrier, that won’t happen at all.

Helm and Verrier collided on the ice during training camp on Friday afternoon, with Helm tested for concussion protocol and Verrier needing to be stretchered off the ice with a broken leg. Both players were hospitalized following the collision during camp, although their return tables are somewhat different.

For Helm, it’s anticipated that he’ll be back out on the ice by next week; that simply makes this a setback and not anything catastrophic. The 28 year old centre, originally drafted in the fifth round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, should hopefully be back on the ice before the regular season begins.

“We are doing concussion protocol to protect Helm,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said, according to the Detroit Free Press. “If he is good [Saturday] and better every day thereafter, it usually takes a week.”

For Verrier, on the other hand, things won’t look so good. The undrafted right wing out of the QMJHL — who recently finished up a split season with the Drummondville Voltigeurs and the Quebec Remparts — had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher. Team veteran Johan Franzen, who has just recently been cleared himself for a long-standing post-concussion diagnosis, said that the collision made him feel ‘a little sick’.

There’s always the risk of accident at training camp, but Verrier can’t be happy about the misfortune he befell during day one. the 21 year old Drummondville native, who was good for 15 points during the 20 game run Quebec made in the CHL post-season, is now too old to return to the QMJHL for a final year. The team hasn’t given any indication as to whether he’ll be given another shot, but this certainly ends his training camp audition for now. Per NHL.com, there is no timetable announced for the return of Verrier to the ice.