Leafs signing Cody Donaghey injured by knee-on-knee hit in QMJHL (VIDEO)

Cody Donaghey, one of the Memorial Cup-host Quebec Remparts' most reliable defencemen, might not playing hockey for a while. The same might go for the Moncton Wildcats forward Will Smith after a nasty knee-on-knee collision on Wednesday night.

The Remparts defenceman whom the Toronto Maple Leafs signed in September had just made a first pass out of his own zone from the right corner when the 18-year-old Smith caught him with the knee with a check that also appeared to be a bit late. Donaghey was unable to put any weight on his right leg as he was escorted off the ice. Smith received a major and game misconduct for kneeing.

That looked bad. It also put a damper on Moncton's 4-0 victory, which was its biggest win of the season.

And talk about a downer postscript to one of the best stories out of the Leafs preseason. Donaghey became a poster child for perseverance after parlaying an invitation to the Leafs summer prospect camp and fall rookie camp into a three-year contract. The St. John's, N.L., native was Quebec's leading defenceman scorer as a 17-year-old with 38 points across 67 games; anyone who can put up decent point totals from the blueline at that early an age is usually worth a flier.

One suspects Smith might shelved for a few games. In 2011, the QMJHL handed out a 15-game suspension to Jonathan Lessard of Baie-Comeau for a knee hit on another Quebec player, Nick Sorensen, who sustained a season-ending injury. This didn't look as severe but it still looked bad.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.