Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said Sunday that the rookie forward was injured in a 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Friday and played through it during Detroit's 1-0 loss to New York at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.
"It's unfortunate," coach Jeff Blashill told the Red Wings website. "It's unfortunate for him, unfortunate for us. It's kind of the way the year's gone a bit and that's life sometimes but it is unfortunate. I thought he was gaining confidence, I thought hew was really starting to play well. He was making plays at the right times, he was living another day at the right times, getting real good opportunities with Larks and on that power-play unit. It's unfortunate but there's not a thing we can do about it except try to get him back ready to roll and hopefully get him going at a high level when he gets back."
Chosen with the No. 6 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, Zadina has 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in 28 games this season for the Red Wings (12-37-4), who are last in the NHL.
Andreas Athanasiou is expected to play against the Philadelphia Flyers in Detroit on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, NBCSP+, NHL.TV). The forward has been sidelined since Dec. 29 with a lower-body injury and took Zadina's spot on a line with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi at practice Sunday.
"That's what I did today is I slid him on that line, slid him in that same power-play spot," Blashill said. "It's unfortunate because you think you're kind of adding another offensive player to kind of make yourself deeper but it is fortunate in the sense that we had just lost Zadina, you're losing firepower, so now you get firepower back obviously with Andreas. That part's good."
Forward Frans Nielsen (undisclosed) is day to day and will miss his second consecutive game.
