The Canes goaltender suffered an upper-body injury just 2:47 into Saturday's game against Dallas when Max McCormick, racing back to defend a scoring opportunity, collided with Mrazek in the crease.
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Mrazek left the game clutching his right blocker-side hand and was ruled out of the balance of the contest. The outlook on his injury then was a little more optimistic than it was come Monday morning.
"It looks like it's going to be a little longer than we had hoped," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said on Monday. "A little more serious damage there."
In fact, after further evaluation, Mrazek's injury might require surgery.
"It's looking like that's probably what's going to happen," Brind'Amour said. "It's a more serious injury than we had hoped."
Prior to his injury, Mrazek was 2-1-0 on the season with a sparkling 0.99 goals-against average, a .955 save percentage and two shutouts. James Reimer has earned two straight wins since and sits at 3-0-0 on the year with a 1.99 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. Alex Nedeljkovic will probably see his first start of the season in net within the next week, while Antoine Bibeau will likely be recalled to the taxi squad as the team's third goaltender in the interim.
