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Team Canada hopeful, Flyers prospect Samuel Morin suffers jaw fracture after being hit by slapshot (VIDEO)

Neate Sager
Morin had 3 assists in his first 5 games back with Rimouski (Ghyslain Bergeron, The Canadian Press)
Morin had 3 assists in his first 5 games back with Rimouski (Ghyslain Bergeron, The Canadian Press)

It is a bad break for Big Sam, with some possible ramifications for the natioanl junior team.

On Sunday night, Mikael Lalancette of TVA Sports confirmed that 19-year-old budding shutdown defenceman Samuel Morin, whom the Philadelphia Flyers "flirted" with keeping on for the early portion of the NHL season, suffered a jaw fracture that will require surgery on Sunday. Morin, who's vying for a spot on Team Canada, was hit in the face with a shot during the Rimouski Océanic's loss to division rival Quebec.

Ouch for the Océanic. Their other 19-year-old NHL first-rounder, Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Frédérik Gauthier, of course, has also yet to play a game for the Quebec League contender since being injured during NHL training camp.

 

The timeline for Morin's recovery will be stated Monday after Morin gets out of surgery. Typically, though, it takes more than one month for a player to make it back into the lineup. The 6-foot-7 Morin is an intriguing candidate for Team Canada going into a world junior championship that will be on North American ice, but he encountered some difficulties with the International Ice Hockey Federation-style officiating during the U20 program's summer exhibition series in Quebec last month against the Czech Republic and Russia.

The final selection camp is two months away. There have been instances of players whose first half of the season had been injury or suspension shortened failing to make Team Canada (current Calgary Flames centre Sean Monahan being a notable example in 2012-13, when he was coming a head-checking suspension right before the game).

It's just worth noting that Morin could — in a best-case scenario — just be rediscovering his groove with Rimouski when camp comes around in December. There's not much good news with a broken jaw, but at least a player can somewhat maintain his conditioning during his recovery.

Meantime, it's quite a roll call of players who played in August who are currently on the shelf: Gauthier, Morin, Sam Bennett, Bo Horvat and Robby Fabbri. Is that all? 

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